[Dialogue] [earthrise] witness, April 28

[David & Lin Zahrt]

Nancy, YES.

But thinking Globally and acting Locally doesn't seem to be enough!  
What else??

BTW <http://www.squarefootgardening.com/>

On Apr 28, 2008, at 7:35 AM, Nancy Trask wrote:
>
> Earthrise witness for the week of April 28
>
> Earth Day has come & gone, but Jaime Vergara’s article in the  
> Saipan Tribune will live on! What a marvelous article. I’m taking  
> it to work this morning to share with co-workers.
>
> I think most of us are beginning to accept as fact that we need to  
> decrease our footprint on the environment, for the sake of the  
> world, for the sake of our own quality of life & that of our kids &  
> future generations. I’ll bet we are each putting out some effort to  
> use less, recycle more, etc.
>
> I feel that my separation from earth-connection is also starving me  
> spiritually. I mourn the fact that the purple martins no longer  
> come to my father’s martin house. And I mourn my ever-decreasing  
> connection with the earth. I hurry to & from work. I pay a neighbor  
> to mow my lawn. I've given up gardening (“too busy”) after a few  
> summer attempts in my back yard, & head for the farmer‘s market  
> instead. I resonate with the tragedy that it is for children to  
> grow up nature-deprived these days.
>
> The extent of our industrialization is no help either. On the board  
> of the local Leadership Institute, we took our participants on a  
> tour of the county last Saturday, and we toured the egg farm just  
> outside Winterset city limits. There are 1.25 million chickens,  
> producing about a million eggs a day. The chicken cages are stacked  
> 4 high, and the wire floors are tilted so the eggs roll to the edge  
> of the cages & drop onto conveyor belts for the trip to the  
> processing building, where they are washed, sorted, candled, and  
> packed by robotic machinery. Gone are the days when the chicken  
> house was a great learning experience for all those farm kids.
>
> How do we build the future? Helena Norberg-Hodge was quoted in Greg  
> Mortenson‘s book, “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote  
> Peace One School at a Time” -- "It may seem absurd to believe that  
> a "primitive" culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our  
> industrialized society. But our search for a future that works  
> keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and  
> the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never  
> abandoned."
>
> I have promised myself to reach out in a new way this year to bond  
> with my natural habitat. Maybe I’ll even (gasp!) give my garden  
> another go.
>
> Nancy Trask, Winterset, IA - OE/EI/ICA bases - 1973-78 Oklahoma  
> City, 1978-80 Boston, 1980-1984 Mumbai, 1984-89 New York City.   
> Lots of learning experiences.  Thanks to every colleague & local  
> leader along the way.
>


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