Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Kennedy/Lense Cap/Mary Oliver


Bulletin: I'm 63-years-old today! 1-24-07. Ed Coletti




(P1) Philosophical


Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
01.16.2007
For the Last, Stubborn Holdouts on Global Warming
READ MORE: Robert F. Kennedy, New York

Last week I saw robins and bluebirds in upstate New York where they don't usually arrive before April. Crocuses and daffodils were in bloom everywhere. A friend ate asparagus he harvested in the normally frozen Catskills in the first week of January. Turtles in downstate New York, like bears in Scandinavia, forgot to hibernate for the first time in human history.

For those last stubborn holdouts still skeptical about the existence of global warming--e.g., CNN's chief corporate fascism advocate Glenn Beck, who broadcast another of his denial tirades last week--and to those who exalt the warmer weather as preferable to a snowy winter, consider the impacts on our fellow creatures. Last April an early spring in Wyoming's Teton Range caused horseflies to arrive early. The young Redtail hawks, who were still unfeathered, were devoured in their nests by the voracious bloodsuckers. Not a single baby Redtail survived to fledge in the Jackson Hole valley.

The macro impacts of global warming--catastrophic storms, flooded coastlines, melted icecaps, shrinking glaciers, dwindling water supplies and agricultural disruptions are finally getting some attention by America's lethargic press. But the seismic shifts in global weather patterns are already dramatically altering the local ecosystems that for eons have defined America's landscape. Nature has achieved a balance that has been relatively stable for 20,000 years. The reliable milestones of its annual rhythms--like flowers blooming and robins returning in the spring, and animals hibernating in winter--form the pulse and fabric of the passing years. They connect us to our history, give context to our communities and form the foundation of American culture, our art, literature, poetry and architecture.

The recent disruptions to animal and plant behavior are evident to anyone except for ideologically blinded right-wing flat-earthers and Exxon/Mobil's political and media toadies like Michael Crichton, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

stopglobalwarming.org

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(P2) Poetical

Please Protect This

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

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(P3) Political


Lens Cap?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to Youuuuuuuuuuu!! Happy Birthday and many many more.

Love,
Ed and Sandy

Ed Coletti said...

Dear Friends and Readers,

My heartfelt thanks to so many of you who've taken the time to wish me a happy birthday by email (off-blog)! I never expected such an outpouring of love.

Thank you all so much.

Ed

Ed Coletti said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hi Ed, thanks for inviting me to your BeDay celebration! Hip hip hooray! You were born today!
Ole Ole!

Here's a poem from Hafiz: tr by Daniel Ladinsky

"Hafiz,
why carry a whole load of books
upon your back
climbing this mountain,
when tonight,
just a few thoughts of God
will light the holy fire."

(Of course by "God" I think he means sacred or swell or whatever gets you Most High)

Hope you join us again at the Center of the Universe. Feb 3rd next one. We have discontinued the piano playing, in case you might like to know. I thought it was too loud too, but needed to know others agreed.

Hope your BeDay has been fun.
Mz Lin Marie

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday...again...Eddie!
You will never be a "bear hibernating" in ANY WEATHER! The only thing you share with those critters is you are both "bigger than life!" Judy and I are very pleased to be your friends! (And the Lovely Joyce too!).

Anonymous said...

Reading about global warming is really very scarey, because the U.S. seems to be just about the only major country in the world that is dragging its feet!

Those who dispute it do so on the basis that these ups and downs that we are experiencing, are not really unusual, but just part of the natural changes that happen with weather. But how can they look at the ice cap, or see pictures of what is happening to Greenland, and not feel that this is something that hasn't happened before?

I remember Rush Limbaugh stating that he didn't care what happened after he was gone!

jenny6664@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Birthday! Just think. . . you still have the other half of your life to live! Hang in there!
jenny6664

Kayla said...

Thanks forr a great read