Earth Healing: Daily Reflections by Al Fritsch, SJ

March 1, 2005 Winter's Hidden Hope

What more to do but stay alive,
Holding firm yet steadfast in silvery statuary,
Clinging tight to ashen memories of yestersummer.

Birds seek shelter from the howling blast,
Bone-chilled wildlife venturing out when hungry
from calm brush-cover;
Trees, long stripped of greenery,
now stand sentinels of a coming spring.

Nature sleeps but lightly,
It's now a fitful rest,
Listen, the sap is rising
to bring forth life anew.

We Christians endure our Lenten fasting,
Another late winter of playing dead,
Foreboding of a final winter
making ready for eternal spring.

Will spring ever come this year?
Will the sun be strong enough to erase snow drifts?
Will the season cycles remember to repeat themselves?

Yes, yes, yes, the hesitant but lengthening day proclaims --
Winter is not forever, even if it seems to be;
Earth's cyclic death contains the germ of hidden life.

The brief span of ice-crystal mornings
cannot continue indefinitely,
For each day is longer, sunlight stronger;
and the wind's chill itself will leave us soon.

And this becomes our fervent prayer,
Let our hopes be bathed in sunlight.

March 2, 2005 Temporary Cold Frames

One of our persistent Appalachian problems is the inability
of many folks to get fresh nutritious greens throughout the year.
These salad ingredients have been traditionally raised outdoors in
gardens from spring to autumn. But for long periods during winter
and long periods of dry conditions such fresh greens are not
available at affordable prices. What I'm striving to do is
proclaim through gardening that such foods can be readily available
through backyard gardening techniques.

Last September 8th, I wrote in the 2004 Reflections about
solar greenhouses and permanent cold frames (mini greenhouses).
This discussion is extended now to focus upon temporary cold
frames. These handy devices are cloth-covered vegetable beds
where the warm atmosphere of the day's sunlit landscape is partly
retrained for the hearty leaf crops growing underneath. The low-
cost temporary cold frames are quite versatile because the cold
frame areas can be selected depending on what is grown on the plots
at a given time during the summer and fall.

I use tobacco cotton or Remay for a cold frame covering and
elevate the covering by the use of a concentric row of hoops made
from native bamboo or metal ones made from bent re-bar. I fasten
down the edges with wire pens formerly used in tobacco plant beds.
The hoops should allow just enough room so the plants will not
touch the cloth, but this needs not be followed so strictly for
collards, which can thrive in our milder Kentucky climate.

Last summer, I planted a garden with a dozen types of greens,
most of which continued well into the fall, and some into the
winter. In October, I transferred some kale, collards, arugula,
cherval, basil, and dill to the ASPI solar greenhouse where it
flourished all winter. Lettuce was finally harvested in late
November before a killing frost. The more winter-hardy greens
remained under protected cover. I picked several pans of greens
from November to January for salads for church gatherings, with
ample portions for dozens of people. I gathered arugula rocket,
Swiss chard, mustard, collards and other greens in February as
well. The protective covering for the 2004-5 cold frame was a
layer of Remay supported by bamboo hoops. Our autumn was unusually
mild, not turning cold until the official start of winter (down to
+6 degrees Fahrenheit) and returned to low temperatures twice in
January.

All in all, with temporary cold frames in milder Kentucky
climates we are able to have salad greens from outdoors for every
month of the year. My goal is to be able to have 12-variety salads
every month of the year, but that will require more variety and
planning. This temporary cold frame is located in the Kentucky
River Valley which may make a difference, but I have not yet
analyzed this micro-climate in comparison with higher nearby
elevations. When we know more, we can suggest salad greens for
wider regional consideration.

March 6, 2005 Faith is a Public Act

'He is a prophet' replied the man.
(John 9:17b)

Chapter 9 in St. John's Gospel one of my favorites, for it
was a milestone in my journey of faith. A young blind man who has
no one to assist in his own defense, not even his parents, is
confronted by hostile people as to how he became cured, and is able
to defend Jesus' mission in a most forthright manner. At the end
they throw him out of the temple, meaning that he is no longer
protected as part of an approved religion. Essentially, he is
condemned. The now cured man has acquired an new handicap by being
proscribed as an outcast. Now he must stand out from the rest as
a Christian who testifies to the mission of Jesus.

Jim Wallis speaks of our faith being something public. In a
culture where religious expression or belief is supposed to be a
private matter, we are called to reaffirm with the man born blind
that Jesus has done something special for us by making us part of
his family. We are who we are through the Risen Lord, and at times
we must say this in a public way. Our open acknowledgment of our
faith is counter-cultural being regarded as threatening or
embarrassing to those who seek to conform to cultural norms.

Today we are asked to make public our faith in many different
circumstances. We might be against the death penalty, or the
current war, or a national death culture -- and we have to say so
publicly. We may have to speak up for life in all its forms and
challenge environmental practices that damage our planet. Silence
in such instances is fools' gold, but a key utterance at the right
moment may be golden. Do we have the spark to resist what seem as
overwhelming consensus? Are we willing to do what the blind man
did in coming forward and acknowledging the divine presence? We
are confronted by our own tendencies never to rock the boat -- but
at times we must.

Having said this, what kind of circumstances open themselves
for our public profession of faith? If asked to go to a wedding we
do not agree with, let us say why we cannot be a false witness;
when asked to affirm that someone should be condemned to death,
let's affirm we do not believe in the death penalty -- even if on
a jury; if denied a jury seat for that reason, let's make a formal
protest to the judge and beyond; if seeing someone demoted or
ostracized, let's speak in their defense even if it threatens our
status; if a politician does something we don't like, let's tell
him or her; if we don't agree with an editorial, let's write a
letter to the editor; if asked to serve in an unjust war, let's
refuse; if told to use our precious tax money for wasteful causes,
let's make our objection known; if we see others refused medical
care, let's make an issue of this; if told to do something that is
wrong, let's refuse; if an unethical practice is detected, let's
not hesitate to whistleblow. And the list of opportunities to go
public goes on and on.

March 7, 2005 The Art of Pretending

I'm not a regular fiction reader and doubt if I have read
many such books outside of early school work or when someone has
given me an occasional gift requiring acknowledgment. Even those
of us who seem fiction-free are caught up with enough fictitious
happenings in our lives. For me, from the earliest childhood,
Santa Claus could never have lived at the North Pole because of the
climate. And my parents never pretended he ever did. He was
called an "employee" of the general store who came to visit us with
a frightful mask once a year. Fiction was never emphasized in a
Depression-era household where reality was harsh enough.

We had neighbors who told tall tales of their exploits. As a
youngster I relished rural social events (haying, threshing of
wheat, and farm sales) when the gathered workers would tend to spin
one tale greater than the last. Story telling happened at family
social gatherings, reunions, weddings, and funerals. Warmer weather
seemed to fuel these tales with added spice and vigor. In fact,
"stories" have been our mainstays, and the characteristic way of
communication in Kentucky. For us, "stories" for us may mean fibs
-- a form of partially fictionalized event that escapes literature,
but becomes a verbal history of our people. These local stories
are so much more colorful than the staid novels written at secluded
resorts and reviewed by prestigious newspapers; those types make
us yawn.

I'm convinced that fiction takes on a new life when one grows
older, when youthful events are reworked in a patchquilt of detail;
these are colored by just enough truth to keep them from being
declared as outright lies. After such stories are told awhile with
conviction, they become Gospel according to the good guy. If
retold by another, their authenticity is further verified, and they
begin to live an epic-type existence all their own. After a period
they become part of the local cultural myth.

Perhaps funeral eulogies are the local canonizations that go
way beyond the person's actual deeds. We are nice to those who
pass on, because we expect the same when rigor mortis sets in for
us. Besides it is unbecoming to speak ill of the dead. And so
friends speak up and enemies are strangely silence, when truth is
stretched and embellished narratives go unchallenged. Eulogies
become the best of fiction and required repetition if the one's
name arises in future conversation. Soon truth becomes forgotten
history.

When we analyze the spectrum of tall tales, we become the
great pretenders. The object of the game is to get others to
pretend to believe us, and to allow their own stories to be
gradually honed into credible format. Story-telling is an art,
based on events, embellished by local color, spoken so as to hold
attention, fashioned for the particular audience, and meant to
endure the test of time.

March 8, 2005 Virtually Wild Ginseng

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) is an indigenous wild
plant growing in wooded areas of eastern North America. Ginseng
requires a lush, wild habitat beneath a hardwood forest canopy
found throughout the Appalachian mountains. Wild ginseng no longer
grows in the deforested mountains of China, where a closely related
and equally valuable variety (Panax ginseng) grew in the past and
was prized for numerous medicinal uses for millennia. This decline
in wild ginseng gathering in Asia has led to widespread use of
"cultivated" ginseng. However, cultivated ginseng has a larger,
less medicinally potent root that is not as highly valued as wild
ginseng. High-grade wild or "virtually wild" American ginseng has
a proven market that could escalate into the billions of dollars as
more affluent Asians seek to acquire this sought-after luxury.

Virtually wild ginseng is grown by sowing cultivated seed
stock in wooded areas; this is done without disturbing the land
itself or adding chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The ginseng
is protected and is allowed to grow over a period of a dozen years
while reaching maturity. During the growing period leaves could be
harvested each year after seed formation and before frost; these
leaves can be dried and sold for tea. Neither the ginseng leaf nor
root market needs much promotion for Chinese recognize the
medicinal value and are willing to purchase three billion dollars
worth a year. Prized wild ginseng root can reach $1,800 a pound
and could replace the tobacco economy in our region. Ginseng can
be grown without clearing for cultivation within existing oak,
hickory, maple and poplar stands of the Appalachian Range and
beyond. Ginseng advocates are convinced that the growing of this
crop will furnish the Mountain people with a steady income while
also saving forest cover which is essential for budding tourism.

Wild ginseng is regarded by some Appalachian woodland owners
as the silver bullet and the key to liberation of the Appalachians
from the shackles of the extractive coal, timber, oil and wood
fiber industries. The region and its people have an opportunity to
survive and thrive, but there are some difficult problems that need
to be addressed in order to make virtually wild ginseng a viable
economic alternative.

First, ginseng needs protection from a host of poachers who
seek to gather the root when owners are not guarding their
property. Virtually wild ginseng requires a number of years to
grow to become a harvestable root; thus the protection must be
somewhat active in regions where law enforcement does not regard
stealing wild root as a crime. Ginseng poaching is prevalent,
especially in the Appalachian regions where wild ginseng is
regarded as common property, though the practice can be detected
and culprits apprehended. Poaching can be controlled through
security (alarms or dogs) or through utilized marketing protection
practices such as the marketing card, which allows only legitimate
growers to sell the product through government-controlled channels.
However, this last safeguard awaits appropriate legislation.

March 9, 2005 Create Tranquil Living Space

I used to watch my dog prepare to bed down by turning around
a full revolution before settling down. That is supposed to be an
ingrained dog instinct to ensure that enemies were not lurking in
the vicinity. We need to turn about also and see what we need for
a comfortable living space, namely, the structures, the utilities,
the furnishings, and the surroundings. This survey applies both to
permanent single home dwellers and to those who rotate from summer
to winter habitats.

A person who lives in cooler climates (say, Canada) in summer
and then spends a sizeable portion of time in warmer climates in
winter (say, Florida) could actually conserve domestic energy
through reduction in heating and air conditioning expenditures by
changing locations; these saving exceed the vehicle fuel costs in
moving back and forth -- provided they discard the camper.

* Interiors -- In designing a quiet house, consider acoustics
and quietness as well as spaciousness, insulation, ventilation,
humidity, color and light. Acoustics may not be a major problem
for some when the children have flown the coop or when the
neighborhood is relatively quiet. The best arrangement of rooms
may have closets and bathrooms located between bedroom areas, and
reading and eating nooks away from the television. If sufficient
space is available, then a "silent" place can be segregated in a
basement or away from active areas. Where space is sparse, a
judicious rearrangement of furnishings could allow for some sound-
proofing. For example, hanging fabrics that serve as partitions
could cut unwanted noise.

* Exteriors -- Create space in quiet external areas near
natural running water streams. New space may be a hobby shed, a
tool room, a tree house, a refurbished portion of a garage, an
extended room on the main building, or an underground den or study.
One may prefer to have a residence with Mediterranean and Middle
East features of a patio or enclosed space as the very center of
the house itself, with living space built around this focal area.
This patio is enriched by flowers, trees, a water fountain, or
exterior art; it is a cool gathering place in the warmer months,
and a haven for wintering birds to be observed and encouraged.

* Retrofitting Homes-- Often people redesign their residences
through do-it-yourself projects. If the object is a more tranquil
surrounding, then time, skill and patience need be directed to
enhancing both the structure and its surroundings. Retrofitting
existing structures can be a part time project. Arrange to keep
the place livable during the retrofitting operation. Temporary
partitions may help during longer-term construction projects and
keep impatient dwellers from losing enthusiasm. Plan some easier
projects such as additional trellises on porches or balconies;
these may act as an insulating barriers to reduce exterior traffic
noise, take less building time, and afford increments of success
for all to see.

March 10, 2005 A Retreat Cabin

"I've just got to get away." How many people think or say
this and mean it. Distancing oneself from one work place is part
of staying sane. For some, getting away is merely taking a walk or
going to a movie. For others, it is to get closer to nature than
what the inside of an office can offer. Maybe the dream getaway
place can be built as part of stress reduction. This "retreat"
place may be one's own creation; consider making it simple and
low-cost. How about using rough-cut wood, native stone or pressed
earth. Consider yurts for low-cost, non-structural framing,
cordwood buildings for forested areas where trees and forest
byproducts are abundant, and geodesic dome structures with ample
loft space. Here are some retreat construction hints:

* Use native materials. Seek to use what can be found in the
vicinity (rock, earth, trees, etc.). The bulk of building
materials have from the beginning of civilization come from local
sources; only in present resource wasteful times do materials come
from distant places. Omit exotic types of dwellings such as straw-
bale structures because they are mildew-prone in humid Eastern
American climates.

* Incorporate simple low-cost designs. Proper planning could
keep the place small, cozy and well-adapted to residents. The
amount of space may be minimized by a loft for sleeping above a
lower living, reading, and dining area. Avoid spacious and lavish
abodes which drain natural resources, and give people wrong
attitudes about use of resources. A roomy upper floor loft may be
less spacious than a usual upstairs room, and yet tall enough to
have a built-in set of drawers for some clothes, a reading lamp and
a shelf for books. For those desiring to be closer to nature, the
exterior could have a shady porch (preferably one with afternoon
shading). Also consider solar energy designs, as well as compost
toilets.

* Encourage native wildlife. Preserving as much of the
native vegetation as possible will help all wildlife habitat to
remain undisturbed. Additional attractions for wildlife can be
installed such as bird feeders and salt blocks for deer and larger
mammals, if their presence is so desired.

* Achieve relative seclusion. Those wanting absolute
isolation from fellow human beings may search out primitive woods
or mountaintops. Most solitude-seeking retreatants prefer relative
seclusion, that is a certain amount of privacy but still being
within shouting distance of other people. If two retreat cabins
are contemplated, place the second a short distance away, but with
a certain added degree of privacy, e.g., separate entrances and
patios. Privacy is enhanced by rotating the sites so that the
front of one is not seen by the other. Both residents can look out
from their respective porches at different vistas. For them,
seclusion only needs to be partial, for the living space may be
remote but not too remote from neighbors.

March 11, 2005 Why I Can't Retire

Some would say -- Give it up; Go off and live the rest of your
life in leisure; You have earned your rest. It's too late to
change the world.

No, I can't agree with these justifications by retirees willing
to distance themselves from motivations that inspired them in the
working world. They may change the type of work but, if still
physically active, they should regard their health as a gift which
needs to be continually shared with the needy.

My health is a blessing as well as a gift; the challenge is
how do I share it best in the current physical condition in which
I find myself. Sharing is a way to show gratitude in deed rather
than mere words. Our work may need to be changed, not halted. The
age of wisdom is one when we find new forms of activity worth
sharing, plan them well, and execute them skillfully.

I can't go off to new leisure life because I'm enjoying where
I am. One does not have to move away to have fun. A world of
leisure -- golfing, fishing, and hunting -- is not appealing. Yes,
some recreation is nice, but too much is quite boring, if we see
more excitement in helping others and organizing our thoughts with
regard to pioneer subjects. As our physical energy begins to wane,
we may have to take on less stressful activities; exploration may
not mean physical journeying; healing may mean taking time for a
visit; working may involve mental exercise; new activities may
require assistance from others.

Our wounded Earth does not need more retirees; it does need
healthy senior citizens who have an important role to play with
their acquired skills and wisdom. Maybe the current culture
attempts to relegate seniors to out of the way places and distant
retirement communities. The mission may be one of involvement, not
retirement, expressed wisdom, not respectful silence.

Retirees are a class to themselves. While most shouldn't,
some seem to live comfortably with the "R" distinction -- and I'll
concede to honor their choice. But retiree candidates should think
twice; their calling may be to staff volunteer programs, to join
governing boards, to help with planning, to engage in the workings
of a political party, to plant gardens with youngsters, to help run
church organizations, to make phone calls, and to do some writing
on one or other subject.

I believe that senior citizens could use the "R" word at times,
especially by retiring from meaningless activities. Many of the
meetings people expect one to attend are exercises in politeness
for the sponsor, or warm bodies for the principal speaker. Forget
it. At a certain grand age when we find it too overbearing, we
need to "retire from meetings" that take energy and time. I hate
most meetings and so I have retired from because I must conserve my
waning energy.

March 12, 2005 Plant More Trees

I compose an annual essay on tree planting because it is so
closely akin to a perfect act of healing the Earth. In 2004, I
helped organize a project of turning a Frankfort pasture land into
woods. We gave over 300 students at Good Shepherd School
individual opportunities to plant their own tree, with older
students helping younger ones. We obtained pine, ash and other
saplings at a reasonable price from the state forest service. From
comments I was assured that the experience was profound for each
student. It was personal involvement in saving the Earth in some
fashion, in touching the soil through getting one's hands dirty,
and in acquiring a sense of mortality; all, even the young,
experienced the bittersweet vision of a tree outliving us.

Each person who plants a tree comes to know the benefits of
forested areas: holding moisture, retarding soil erosion, taking
up carbon dioxide, generating oxygen, being a sanctuary for birds
and wildlife, acting as wind breaks, and providing wood in a future
generation after we are gone. An important additional advantage
involves enhancing a beautiful site each spring when the various
trees come in full bloom. In fact, the adornment effect on the
property is a major asset worth proclaiming. The ripe fruit will
be an added sign of hospitality.

This year we have a green space next to the Ravenna Catholic
Church which would make a good orchard plot, and so the parish is
sponsoring the planting of fruit trees in the one acre of lawn.
We will order disease resistant apples as suggested by my brother
Charlie, the apple orchardist near Newark, Ohio. We will plant
Enterprise, Johnafree and Gold Rush along with some cherry, plum
and peach dwarf varieties to allow for easy picking. I told the
parish council members that it is good to have edible fruit because
we are surrounded by many non-fruit varieties in the midst of the
Daniel Boone National Forest (perhaps the only Catholic Church
directly within the Forest). We need to taste the produce from our
land so we can more easily become part of the place where we live.

Many people see the tree planting as an opportunity to
dedicate the event and the tree in honor of someone who has given
great service, has moved away, or has passed on in death.
Dedicated trees could be adorned with special markers telling the
person(s) to whom it is dedicated. Generally a fruit tree is short
lived; thus some may desire to plant longer living oaks and
hickories. However, another approach is to have a succession of
trees after the shorter-life fruit tree has expired. Whatever
procedure is used, each tree planting is a mark of respect for the
person remembered and an opportunity to teach respect at a formal
place of worship. Whatever the circumstances, resolve to plant a
tree this spring either as an individual or within a group
ceremony. And make three plantings an annual event with as many
participants as possible.

March 13, 2005 A New Spirit

O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you on your land; thus you shall know that I am
the Lord. I have promised and I will do it, says the Lord.
(Ezekiel 37:14).

As we move through Lent we see the need for our world to
develop a new spirit, if it is witness peace in our time. This
reading may be viewed by the fundamentalist Israeli as a command to
retake, settle and drive out all foreigners. At the same time a
Palestinian could read the same passage and declare the right of
return to land from which his parents were driven out in the late
1940s. And, unfortunately, it is the same land, the same small
tract called the Holy Land. The challenge for all of us is to help
make a place where both groups can settle in peace on that land.

The answer seems simple enough: mixed neighborhoods. In fact,
some Arabs now live in Israel and are citizens of that country.
However, beyond the fact is the friction. Some Israeli do not want
the five million Palestinian refugee to return and find settlements
within the Israeli territory lest over half of the total population
would be Moslem and some interspersed Christians. On the other
hand, as the recent years of conflict have shown, the Jewish
neighborhoods are anathema to some fundamentalist Moslems as well.
And amid the struggle many Christians simply give up and move to
Detroit or Los Angeles.

All three great religions pray to the same God -- Lord,
Yahweh, Allah. All three groups agree that our God is almighty and
able to do all things. Can God bring us together? This God is
loving and wants peace for all. Amazingly, in time of prayer we
agree that life goes beyond fiery rhetoric. We must pray that the
seemingly irreconcilable conflicts of the past few decades will be
removed and that people would come together in peace -- the lions
and the lambs get together. With God all things are possible. If
all parties only saw that the power of our God is in the
reconciliation and renewal of heart. For centuries, people did
live side by side in the Holy land -- Christians, Moslems and Jews;
it can and must happen again.

No one would really have to move; all could have their
neighborhoods and villages; all mingle and cooperate, shop
together, go to the same movies, stroll in the same parks, visit
nearby shrines without fear. Tourists could return and the
resident population could prepare to serve them with enthusiasm and
hospitality. The market area covers over two billion believers
from the three major faiths -- and others as well. The goal could
be to expect forty million pilgrims a year to come and visit. This
lucrative tourist trade would give prosperity to all groups of
people, dignity to the small business people, and a growing sense
of trust among the total population. Then all would know that God
is truly the Lord of this land. Can't we dare to dream with a
renewed spirit? And can we pray that our God will help us?

March 14, 2005 The Future of Wind Power

As the winter landscape warms we are reminded of the global
warming that is taking place all about us, and that much of this is
caused by using fossil fuels for electricity generation. Ice caps
are melting and ocean levels are rising. One answer to this
disturbing phenomenon is resource conservation, but that can help
only so much. The other answer is conversion to renewable energy
sources. How could we pass through the month of March and not talk
about wind power? Wind is the fastest growing energy source and
that is being enhanced by new taxes incentives now coming into
effect. And this is both an American and a global phenomenon.
Estonia hopes to have 5% of its energy from wind in five years.
Other European countries such as Germany, Denmark and Spain are
heading in that direction. In 2003 I saw more wind generators in
Germany than ever in an auto trip from the Rhine River to Munich.

The European Union has estimated that renewable energy
generation will help create many more jobs than either fossil fuels
or nuclear power facilities. In fact, almost three jobs are
created for every megawatt of wind-generated energy produced.
Solar energy even does better than wind by creating about seven and
a third jobs for every megawatt of energy from the sun. This is
good news for regions of the world where new jobs are badly needed
for rapidly growing lower income populations.

The Native American newsletter Honor the Earth points out that
renewable energy poses a remarkable alternative for Native America.
Quoting from that periodical, "Some 23 Indian reservations in the
Great Plains region have as much as 200 gigawatts of wind power
potential -- enough potential generating capacity to reduce output
from coal plants by thirty percent and reduce our greenhouse gas
emissions from electricity production by twenty-five percent."
Furthermore the periodical adds that the Fort Berthold Reservation
on the upper Great Plains has over 17,000 times as much wind power
potential as could be used on the reservation.

Wind power has a very bring future, though that differs
according to topography. Kentucky's Black Mountain, whose
landscape is so threatened (see tomorrow's essay), has areas with
wind power ratings of Class Seven (the highest in wind power
potential). Wind's day has come and it has little bad effects
outside of birds and bats killed at various California and
Appalachian locations; these local problems could be remedied
through proper placement of the wind generators and installation of
devices to scare away the migratory creatures which come too close.
What wind advocates note is that the opponents are not so much bird
lovers but the coal and nuclear folks who want to bad mouth this
new and highly environmental competing energy source. They are
aided inadvertently by the second and third home owners who fear
that wind generators will possibly disturb their choice landscape
views from their summer mountaintop or coastal homes.

Check: American Wind Energy Association <www.awea.org>

March 15, 2005 Black Mountain Blues

Julius Caesar was killed through a conspiracy about 2000 years
ago on the ides of March. But conspiracies continued in various
ways down through the centuries. We are deeply intertwined in a
major conspiracy to capture the world through corporate profit and
evasion of environmental responsibility. This is occurring in so-
called undeveloped lands and also right here in Appalachia. Part
of that conspiracy is the manner we treat our people and natural
resources.

The most visible conspiracies are recent coal strip mining
operations which involve removal of mountaintops to get to the
black gold. I recently witnessed this occurring on Black Mountain
-- that long mountain ridge part of which separates Kentucky from
Virginia. The incredibly beautiful fragile forested skin is peeled
away and the earthmovers scrape over the overburden to expose the
valuable coal seas. Hill tops are sliced off and the layers of
dirt and rock are pushed into the hollows and valleys like the
massive decapitation of an apple stack cake. What remains from the
once verdant landscape is a barren rather flat moonscape devoid of
anything but green dyed clay and exposed acidic shale.

We hate conspiracies and so pretend they do not exist. You
certainly wouldn't continue to celebrate when thugs are trashing
your upstairs; you won't reason with them to stay in one place.
Black Mountain is part of our house and it is being trashed while
we are speaking. Conflict resolutions are not sufficient to stop
this situation. How can we stop the abuse and save the precious
heritage called Black Mountain? This mountain includes our state's
highest peak, some of its most exquisite scenery, and the vast
variety of plants and animals in the Mixed Mesophytic Forest.

I recently reread a small newsletter from an eastern Kentucky
activist of the 1960's. The strip mining problem was fairly clear
to activists then -- namely, stop surface mining on elevated slopes
at all costs. The tone was one of hope, latent power, exploding
energy, and wishful thinking. But not much happened beyond some
futile attempts. Then there was the Surface Mining and Reclamation
Act of 1977. A few of the national champions were invited by
President Jimmy Carter to come to the White House for the signing
ceremony. But the pioneers were not invited. They dropped away,
died, moved off, or simply went silent. Yet Black Mountain suffers.

The 1977 compromise/conspiracy was to allow steep-slope
mining, provided lands were returned to their original contour --
a costly and time consuming feat for money-making coal operators.
So the corporate types found ways around this form of reclamation.
They turned sites into development areas; they leveled mountains
into parks and airports and shopping centers; they spray painted
more and more of the barren land green; they filled the clay soil
with exotic and invasive Russian olive. Yes, we have been
betrayed. However, some environmental groups are contesting this
situation through legal actions. Let's hope they succeed.

March 16, 2005 Groundhog's Day Revisited: Predictions

Today is six weeks after the day when the groundhog either saw
or didn't see his shadow. Was the prediction correct in your
locality? No one hardly ever bothers to check. Let's return to
February 2nd. That day has both religious and unrelated secular
significance: the Presentation in the Temple and Groundhogs Day.
The lowly groundhog is the only animal dignified with a national
day. As our American tradition goes, if the groundhog sees his
shadow he reckons that there will be six more weeks of winter and
he returns to his hole. This animal, also known as the American
marmot or woodchuck, lives in a burrow, hibernates in winter, and
has a habit of standing on his haunches and surveying the area
around his home when he exits -- thus the reason for this
particular superstition. And while all the press watch particular
groundhogs each year to see their behavior, there is absolutely no
track record of success. It may or may not be a harsh late winter
-- and the sunny condition has nothing to do with it.

Few of us check whether the end of year human experts were
right or wrong in their predictions. I could take any half-soused
barfly and ask the same questions to them and the expert, I
guarantee the drunk is also right about half the time. I find some
Farmer's Almanac predictions actually funny when reading what the
weather should be and actually is. The prediction is just about
what anyone could do. Some of the past fortune tellers of futures
like Nostrodamus were so vague about the manner of prediction that
just about anything could be interpreted as accurate. So between
not checking and the vagueness, the practice continues. People
would like to believe that someone or thing knows about tomorrow.

Future predictions have a little more than half success if
couched in certain caveats. Omit saying January will be hot and
your chances go up considerably. In other words, in normal snow
country a prediction of a weekly January snow might be right more
than half the time. To say wet, could mean wet snow or mist, or
heavy rain. So one could with careful wording increase the
accuracy of predictions beyond the 50% mark. Great! As for any
fortune telling, take it with a grain of salt. You will feel
better and most likely, your guess is as good as the expert,
whether a groundhog or human being.

A desire to know the future is akin to voyeurism, an
insatiable appetite for what is beyond our normal reach. Why can't
we be satisfied with what is what. Maybe the groundhog's six week
prediction has more grounds in scientific fact than some of the
expert human predictions of longer range. But why should we be so
concerned? We know when the next season will come and we can
prepare for it using normal means. To expect that some have this
gnostic insight into the future gives them powers which they do not
have much foundation for. Let us be satisfied with our own common
sense and leave the rest to what comes. Such is life!

March 17, 2005 Clover and St. Patrick

Saint Patrick's Day was always the time we aimed at sowing our
clover and plant our first potatoes. Usually it was more easy to
do the first than the second, for the season was a wee bit too
early for root crops. Maybe the good Saint's day is a good gauge
of Irish crops, even though Clover was far closer to the native
landscape than the potato; its claim to fame occurred with a
famine several centuries after importation from the Western
Hemisphere.

As a kid I would gaze up at the great stained glass window on
the west side of St. Patrick's Church and see Patrick teaching the
people about the Trinity holding a clover leaf. On the east window
was the axeman St. Boniface cutting down the tree thought to be a
god among the German tribes. This east window was a concession to
the half of the parish which had Germanic blood, in a town that in
1910 could not support two ethnic parishes. Even though not a drop
of Irish blood coursed my family's veins, we had our pew on the
Irish side, and I could gaze at the clover more than the cutting of
the Oak of Thor. Eventually I did become a graduate of St.
Patrick's, one of the few remaining parish high schools.

My Irishisms stopped pretty much at the love for white clover,
which is so very soft and cool under one's barefoot. I always
hunted for the four-leaf lucky clover and envied people who found
one. They were always Irish. We did sow clover and use several
varieties for hay: red clover was beautiful but made a dusty hay
in harvesting; sweet or yellow clover was usually mixed with other
hay varieties and was somewhat tough; timothy was long and straight
stemmed but highly favored by the cattle, and far less dusty; and
Korean clover was short, dense and dried into loose and fluffy
masses requiring skill to gather and load with a traditional
pitchfork. The white clover was also good for the pasturelands,
and cows tended to devour it with greed. If turned into a wet
fresh clover field, the cows could so overindulge that they could
bloat up and possibly die. My dad saved one cow by stabbing its
bloated belly with a sharpened tobacco stick, releasing the gas and
allow it to get up and recover.

Clover is a legume and is as well known for allowing nitrogen
to be "fixed" from the air in the form of nitrogen chemical
compounds in the soil. This fertilizing effect makes clover one of
the darlings of the organic farming world. Some people sow rows of
clover for walking paths between plots of berries and vegetables.
Some even attempt to interplant crops in the clover patches; while
there are beneficial effects, one must remember that in dry times
the clover will compete for the limited moisture in the field.

Only later in life did I find out that the blossoms of the
white or red clover could be eaten. These blooms turn out to be
good in garnishing salads -- and help bring back so many memories
of clover days and hay fields. And a happy St. Patrick's Day to
those of you who wear the green clover leaf.

March 18, 2005 Baby Boomers and Generation Titles Age

Today, my only godchild and blood sister, Patsi, turns sixty.
We anticipated the passing by celebrating a four-state get-together
last month. She was not strictly a flower child and missed being
a baby boomer by two months, but came quite close. We called her
"baby face" for years until she told us she didn't like that title
and we generally honored that request -- until today. But how
could I be in a different generation from my own sibling?

Baby boomers were the breath of fresh air on those of us who
were the Great Depression generation. That tragedy marked us with
a social stigma which none of us really got over even during the
post-Second World War boom times. The ones born after that awful
War were regarded as a new generation. Some have tried to
characterize them in both laudatory and pejorative terms which have
little factual grounds. Instead I would rather look at what their
aging means to our country. Youth is giving way to middle and
older years with the certain relentless flow of time. The so-
called baby boomers are now leaving the labor force and collecting
Social Security that they have paid into for decades. Many are
looking forward to the ebb of physical energy and more leisure
time. The baby boomers are numerous, and they will contribute to
a growing population of senior citizens.

These baby boomers are going to make their voices heard as
they start to adjust to the senior citizen status. They will learn
soon enough that restaurants give discounts. With such swelling
ranks, they may even elevate the term middle age into the sixty
years and beyond. They may find that responsibilities remain,
since many still have living parents in their eighties and
nineties. They are becoming senior citizens destined to be health
care providers for a living older generation.

For this group, political perspectives will surely change, but
in what direction? Many older people tend to favor different
social issues: health care costs will precede educational programs,
tax relief over minimal wages, and retirement benefits over work
place conditions. This natural shift will be expected except that
one hopes they will continue to champion all justice issues through
attention and voluntary contributions. We hope a sizeable portion
of this aging population will not descent to partisan issues and
remember educational and other needs of younger people.

Many generations have fuzzy boundary lines. I have a self-
professed baby boomer first cousin among my fifty-one cousins who
talks as though I belong to a distant generation. The truth is my
first cousins on both sides of the family range over a fifty year
span -- I baptized one cousin while another was a grandmother. It
seems these so-called generation differences are a little
overdrawn. Becoming overly set in a certain category is divisive
and causes us to age all the faster. Let's retire the naming of
generations and regard our interests as more universal; then we
don't have to be caught in different generations.

March 19, 2005 Mercury Worries

One of the first environmental projects I worked on at the
Center for the Study of Responsive Law in 1970 was mercury
pollution. At that time the major worry was sizable amounts in
Great Lake fish in areas where methyl mercury dissolved in waters
in the sludge near outlets from sodium hydroxide producing chemical
facilities. The mercury contaminated the fish which was
eventually ingested by human beings. The worry was that elevated
levels of mercury could bring on Mad Hatters' disease -- an ancient
observed disease resulting from occupational mercury poisoning. At
that time in 1970 the mercury contamination scare surfaced in most
of the major newspapers; it quickly spread to concern about other
types of seafoods, some with higher mercury levels than others.

Interestingly enough, I discovered that a sizeable portion of
the mercury in the oceans was human induced, resulting from "placer
mining" methods to extract precious metals going back several
hundred years. Sizeable amounts of mercury were used, which
escaped into the environment with production peaking in the latter
part of the 19th century. Over time mercury concerns have expanded
to liquid mercury in experimental equipment, to mercury in
swordfish, in coatings and paints, in certain older medical
formulations, in filling in teeth, and in coal-fired powerplant
emissions (the last is source of 42% of mercury released in the
total atmosphere).

The Food and Drug Administration and the USEPA issued a joint
warning on fish consumption targeting women of child-bearing age
and children to refrain from eating more than 12 ounces of fish per
week. The EPA adds that 630,000 newborns each year are at risk for
suffering adverse effects on learning and development due to the
mother's elevated mercury levels.

The serious concern over mercury health threats flows hot and
cold, with more interest at a given period and then the issue is
neglected for a few years. After many delays since the 1990
amendments to the 1970 Federal Clean Air Act mandating mercury
reduction, the USEPA released proposed rules regulating mercury
emissions from coal plants in January, 2004. These rules require
a 90% reduction in mercury emissions from these power plants by
2008. Needless to say, these proposed rules trigger strong
resistance from the coal-fired utility companies which are always
concerned about the bottom line. They forget that coal is a cheap
energy source because it is not paying all environmental damages.

I confess to being uncertain whether it pays for people to go
through the expense of replacing mercury-containing fillings with
other types, some of which are not near as long-wearing. Older
sources of mercury pollution in paints and household objects have
been replaced. However, the mercury coming from the powerplants
does bother me. With some added expense the utilities could clean
up their act and keep tons of the toxic mercury out of our
atmosphere. That remedial solution should be taken seriously.

March 20, 2005 Palm Sunday: Hollow Shouts of Victory

Today Christians wave palm branches and sing Hosanna to the
King of kings. But how sincere is this gesture? This
demonstration comes five days before the awful Calvary event. Only
too often in life we say that victory has occurred long before the
struggle is over. Take the official close on hostilities in Iraq
in May, 2002. Maybe we want victory so badly that we warp
realities to shout that it has now occurred. A review of that
first Palm Sunday unveils a profound message: those who shouted
victory could be fickle when the real struggles started; by the
following Friday some of the same voices would shout "Crucify him."
How could people change so fast, and then we think of the way we
act on occasion. We have a host of hollow sayings:

"Be with me, Lord," and then we turn our backs on God's
goodness and separate ourselves through sinfulness.

"We have the world's greatest health system," and then we find
that the American system is far down the list on almost every count
from that of the other industrialized nations. The biggest claim
to fame is that it is the most expensive and fails to cover about
43 million people.

"I'm saved, are you?" This is actually tainted by the sin of
presumption, a sin against the Holy Spirit. Where is the journey
of faith to be carried out in fear and trembling?

"We are blessed because of who we are." Instead, we are truly
blessed by the goodness of the Almighty, but in order for us to
express gratitude we are called to share more of those blessings
with less fortunate people in other lands.

"I'm happy, are you?" This is somewhat hard to prove and our
hesitancy might be taken as an indictment of us. Happiness exudes
from the whole person and is not a verbal affirmation or denial.
Too many people show fits of depression to say that happiness is
everywhere in the land.

"We are secure." This is a wishful expression betraying an
underlying insecurity. Many live in the fear that there will be a
repeat of 9-11 or that someone with a smallpox virus will turn it
loose on an unsuspecting urban population.

"I'm smart, are you?" This generally deals with a certain
attitude that one holds to be more important than all the wisdom of
the other party.

"We work harder than the poor who can care for themselves."
The facts show the poor are quite hard working people.

"The rich deserve better tax breaks." This is so blatantly
false that it is not worth rejoining.

March 21, 2005 Spring has Sprung

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe cry out: To
the one who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and
honor, glory and might, forever and ever. (Revelations 5:13)

With springtime, all creation gives praise to God. We pause
and listen to voices of spring and see visions of new life: running
streams and beautiful rivers, whispering forest with its pink
redbud and white dogwood, 120 plus migratory birds with their
blues and reds and yellows as they make their way north, young
colts and calves romping in spring, and carpets of wild geranium,
phlox, blueflags, fire pink, river orchids and trillium. We have
visions and vivid dream dreams. Honor and glory are present and
are coming in a final blaze of glory. With springtime joy, we are
soon to celebrate Easter with its promise of renewal.

All creation gives praise, just as all creation cries and
laments and has genuine feelings for joy and sorrow, expressions
profoundly scriptural and deeply embedded in the tradition of the
Church. The sensate planet and all Earth's creatures are gifts
from the divine bounty, and all are finite and vulnerable in their
own way. These beings revel in their vitality, diversity,
complexity, and their participation in the community of the
Godhead. They share in being present to other beings and to those
who came and will come in the future. All creation enjoys life,
even if but for an instant or for an unhurried moment before a
predator attacks. Our arrival and sojourn on Earth is short, a
brief candle. We prepare to celebrate the upcoming Easter event,
the fullness of this spring vision.

Spring Has Sprung

I heard the mockingbird again at daybreak,
holding a varied tune of all that brings on spring.
I suddenly realized that time moves on
and yet patterns stay put like "winter cling."

That season's gone and another has slipped in unnoticed,
Dandelion carpets yellow and green.
The trees bud swell and four-legged mammals scurry about;
Nature's hesitant renewal all colorful and sheen.

While we have a mantra about hating winter --
and those frosts and flurries long past due time
threatening apple blooms and early plantings
and failing to let the mercury climb.

Nature comes again in fits and starts,
and we, too, have seasonal changes in hymn and song,
but we become more willing to spring the cling
to that new expression -- "winter's clung too long."

March 22, 2005 America's Inconsistent Drug Policy

America's longest running war is that on drugs. Annually we
spend about three billion dollars on trying to interdict drug
trafficking from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the coca
gathering regions of the Andes -- and the routes from these out of
the way places to New York and London. That war is not being won;
drugs are getting to their destinations. Some such as Angus
McQueen, who has documented the traffic from origin to finish
point, says that the task may be better fought through some control
and legalization -- a regulation of the traffic which would deflate
drug prices and turn attention from interception to education and
drug abatement programs at the consuming end of the route.

Subsistence growing of coca will continue much like the
natives have done for centuries; gatherers will continue to receive
their small prices for raw leaves. The big profits start in the
processing of the coca leaves to a cocaine paste which at that
point has to be sent across immense distances. Each agent takes a
little more and profits soon mount a hundredfold, as a host of
cartel operators get into the act -- from fashioning drugs into
sculptured artifacts to air travelers swallowing bags of coke.
Then there's the urban marketers cutting or stuffing the smuggled
caches with everything from ground glass to aspirin. And at the
very end is a victim who has stolen money to feed the addiction and
is down and out. Unfortunately, this sorry scenario is quite real.

This is only part of the war on drugs; other substances are
either under- or over-regulated. At this time the inconsistencies
become more clear as I try to develop an ethics of tobacco use. I
have held a principle of "moderation in all things" and yet part of
the drug picture (prescription drugs) is geared to overuse, some is
totally forbidden (marijuana), some is partly regulated (alcohol),
and some is barely regulated (tobacco). Our government has
tolerated tobacco for centuries and has supported tobacco growers
with a misused product that shortens 450,000 American lives a year;
all the while our law enforcers imprison marijuana growers with a
product that has little or no record of shortened lives. The
powerful tobacco industry lobby has kept tobacco from Food and Drug
Administration regulations, while our nation forbids the raising of
virtually harmless low-THC hemp varieties.

Also our government has allowed the advertising of legal but
often ineffective lucrative medicinal drugs. That advertising
practice increased from $55 million in 1991 to over $3 billion
today. All the while the drug companies have disobeyed FDA
regulations about 90% of the time in their advertising practice.
How does the ignorant public know what is good for it? The drug
industry knows that pressured doctors will prescribe these drugs
through insistence by consumers -- and so the billions of dollars
are made at the expense of human health. See the just published
book Overdo$ed America by John Abramson for many of the gory
details of the drug industry's subversion of research, medical
journals, and the experts themselves -- all for immense profits.

March 23, 2005 Spy Wednesday

No one likes to be spied upon. There is something sinister in
this basic intrusion on our world, even when we don't have much to
hide. Some of us might even admit that we live such unimportant
lives that we would like to be a target of a spy, provided it does
not involve violence. However, what makes this day dream somewhat
less appealing is the reality that we are being spied upon -- but
as individual potential consumers in a large mass of spied-upon
Internet users ; we are mere objects of potential commerce. And,
to be sure, this spying does do violence to our own privacy rights.

Computer users now have something more than just SPAM and
viruses to worry about. Spyware is out there ready to burrow into
our utmost privacy to find out all about us, namely, what our
interests are, what we tend to buy, the size and composition of our
family, our friends and connections, and how we spend our leisure
time. Our personal history is now becoming available to those who
want to use e-mail logging lists for their own commercial
advantages. Whether we like it or not, we are the target of these
business ventures -- all for the great god of profit.

Can we do anything about it, or must we reluctantly accept the
erosion of our privacy as part of the price of globalization and
ready Internet access? Is this similar to the way we now tell our
Social Security Number upon demand from a bank or motel or business
office? Note that when first given, these SS numbers were to be
only available to governmental agencies to make use of such
numbers, but that was a half century ago and times have changed.
We are all out there hitchhiking on the highway of www.

Must we accept the inevitable or are we willing to do
something about it? This question opens up the major reason I find
the Internet such a mixed blessing. It is nice to sit down and in
one minute make a connection with friends in Asia or Africa. What
a joy to know we are all so connected. But this interconnection
also makes us tied to a world of risks and vulnerabilities. Being
open to others means that some find it important to penetrate the
privacy for their own ends. The promise of greater access to
others carries the peril of threats to our freedoms. When we open
our nests to Internet entries, we are also opening ourselves to the
being spied upon more easily. However, it may not take a person
with earphones listening to our boring phone messages. Spying is
done with impersonal listening devices which analyze, compile and
spit out messages with hardly a human thought associated with the
operation.

Is there anti-spyware on the market? Yes, it is there and it
is currently efficient. However, rest assured that some hacker is
right now working to beat the current system. This draws us into
the infinite computer game of overcoming one obstacle and then
finding another one just over the crest. The Internet is open to
access and invasion. Just how much will we concede is part of our
personal journey to Calvary?

March 24, 2005 Protect Streams

A gurgling mountain stream is one of the most wonderful sounds
of nature's ongoing concert. I love that sound and could stay and
listen for hours, if other pressing business did not call.
Riverlets of water hit rocks, diverge and converge with sounds that
defy writing description. Those free-flowing channels are some of
Appalachia's most beautiful assets -- and call for greater
appreciation. They are more than musical sources; they are waters
again becoming potable; they are habitats for fish and wildlife;
they provide for the rivers and lakes that grace the region.

Keeping streams healthy is part of Earth healing. Different
states have regulations relating to stabilizing streambed banks,
removing logs and debris from streambeds, digging out stumps and
roots, rechanneling streams, and even cutting trees near a stream.
We know that new channels will form naturally especially at times
of flooding, but we can help protect streams and their banks from
major damage. We also realize how reasonable these regulations are
when remembering that streamside trees hold banks in place, cool
the stream and provide habitat for wildlife.

Even more particulars are worth considering. Some remove flat
rock and gravel from streambeds for building purposes. One should
check with state water officials to see whether that practice
requires a permit. Generally gravel bars that do not support trees
could be mined on an individual purpose basis. When streambanks
erode, one should contact state conservation officials before
beginning a remedial measure; actions taken may be good meaning but
may only lead to further and even more serious erosion over time.
Removing a gravel bar may seem the reasonable thing to do to save
the other side of the stream; both stream flow may be slowed down
by the bar and the removal will only exacerbate the problem.

Often human activities damage streambeds which now need
restoration. Logging or mining operations or development projects
upstream may lead to brush and silt accumulation; increased paving
upstream may increase water flow and downstream streambank erosion;
tree falls may lead to channel change. Expert advice will always
help before taking measures into one's hands.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation lists seven
ways to prevent streambank erosion: 1) keep vehicles and equipment
out of stream whenever possible; 2) keep trees and plants along
streambanks; 3) remove fallen logs and other woody debris from the
stream channel by winching or dragging as soon as possible; 4)
provide a water source such as a pond or tank for livestock away
from a stream, or provide controlled access to the stream at a
stable location; 5) allow your stream to establish a natural path
and slope whenever possible; 6) use anchoring trees, rootwads,
large rocks, plants and other natural materials to repair eroding
banks; and 7) conduct ongoing maintenance to keep small problems
from becoming big ones.

March 25, 2005 Wounded Earth as Calvary

Imagine the mixture of the sounds of Calvary with the crowds
in their jeering and boisterous jostling and loud irreverent
conversation. Curses and catcalls. Yet in the shadows of the cross
are the few who pray in silent whispers with Mary his Mother. The
terrifying scene is too unsightly to gaze for long. The dark
clouds are swirling in a foreboding manner, punctuated by
lightening flashes all about. The Earth trembles knowing a
monumental event is occurring. We smell the sweat of the unwashed,
the garbage heap called Calvary. We taste sour wine and death in
the making. If we listen intensely, we hear the central figures of
all who are suffering -- the suffering Body of Christ today. They
are coming to their final dying words and their final hours. The
final curtain call of life and the ultimate cries of people form the
chorus call of the dying. Here we experience the Calvary event
extended in space and time. Today and every day this year about
one hundred thousand people come to the most important moment of
their lives, that day written on a granite slab in a cemetery.
Thus we hear their words --

"You will be with me in paradise" hears the one who stood up
for justice and knows that there is nothing to take beyond death's
door but the love stored up over the years.

"Why have your forsaken me?" pleads the abandoned, the
homeless, the refugees, the ones with no place to turn or go.

"Forgive them" pray the bloodied victims of abuse of one of
many forms, but still has the sense of mercy in their hearts.

"Here is your mother," offers a dying AIDS victim to her
whimpering child soon to be among 13 million orphans.

"I thirst" comes from a million parched throats and those who
would die to have one more addictive drink.

"It is consummated" mumble those on the battlefields, the
cancer wards, the hospices and the dying beds of a million places.

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," are the final
words of people who have courageously battled the wasting diseases
of our age and who know the end of this mortal life is at hand. It
is their final will, their moving out of life in composure to have
the living spirit sweep them up into the Light of Divine Life.

It's silent now, blessed silence, when we pay respects in
nods and hugs and few words, for we are speechless in the midst of
death that has occurred, and with fleeting memories of a divine life
spent in total sacrifice. Even the Earth seems exhausted after
its own upheavals and convulsions, and the respectful silence after
its cries of anguish as total desolation sets in. We now bury
Jesus so we can come back on Sunday when the Lord rises at Easter.

March 26, 2005 Tsunami

Today is the three month anniversary of that largest natural
disaster in our recent human history. We have heard and read much
of this subject, but a small distance in time may be helpful for
future reflection. The pessimists tell us how cold nature is, and
that we will be pushed over heartlessly, if we dare stand in the
way. They also challenge optimists -- if there are such people
when 300,000 perished. Optimists like to focus on how much they
went out and helped victims.

Most of us are realists standing between the pessimistic and
the optimistic. We tend to dismiss a punishment thesis -- as
though a wrathful God took pleasure in sending out that flush of
water on so many helpless fishing villages and others the day after
Christmas. The compassion of all of us realists is quite real,
even while both extreme views teach us something. The pessimists
say don't stand in the way of mother Nature's forces; that applies
to those who build on a flood plain or the slopes of an active
volcano -- or who want to live right at the beach in a tsunami-
prone coastline. Standing in the way is a risk before an ever
changing planet and its powerful forces. The optimists point to
people even though the victims ought to be the center of focus, not
the donors. As Prime Minister Tony Blair said right after the
disaster, we have a hidden tsunami happening every week on the Sub-
Saharan continent in the deaths of infants and others from easily
preventable diseases.

Our response to the December 26th disaster was and is laudable.
The militaries of 19 nations worked together in peaceful ways to
save a distressed population of survivors; aid came quickly and in
a multitude of forms, even though some was more effective than
others. The ability of a united world to respond to disasters is
being learned and appreciated -- and we can give to those who are
sorrowing with joy. Today we still linger with the Calvary of the
Tsunami. We look with compassion to those who have
suffered Calvary; and we also look ahead to those who will be in
future need. Tomorrow will be a feast of Resurrection and new
life. After Calvary comes Easter, the heart of our Christian
faith. After the draining experience of suffering and death comes
the promise of new and better life. The challenge is for us on
Holy Saturday to shift gears from sadness to joy.

Immediate action from other nations includes the building of an
early warning system against future tidal waves of such magnitude.
And this can be done at relatively low cost. We are catalyzed as
a people not to let this type of tsunami catch us so unaware. We
have the instrumentation to tell when such events are triggered and
we have some precious time to get the warning to people in distant
places. Technical know-how can be utilized effectively. It can be
done, it must be done, it will be done. That is what makes us a
more mobilized, sensitized, and concerned people today. And in
being so, we rest assured that the almost 300,000 victims of last
December 26th did not die in vain.

March 27, 2005 We are Easter People

This morning sunlight first appears and streaks across the
skies at the International Dateline and then on to the Pacific
Isles, the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines, Indo-China, the
villages of China, holy Jerusalem and the Middle East, the huts and
jungles of Africa, the stately cathedrals and villages of Europe
and then to our Hemisphere from the glistening Arctic ice-fields to
the tip of Chile and on to Hawaii and Easter Island. At all these
locations, two billion believers awake to the smell of the new fire
and the words on their lips "Christ has Risen." We all greet the
Easter dawn, something quite ancient -- a 2,000 year old event --
and yet it is a profoundly new day because we say in the present
tense with enthusiasm, "Christ has risen." We are a new Easter
People. Spring has definitely come, the season of freshness,
vitality, forgiveness and openness to mystery.

Two substances we celebrated last night symbolize this day the
most: Easter fire and Easter water. They seem so opposite, for we
quench fire with water and we use fire to boil away water. As
human beings we are drawn to both these "elements" as if our
primeval instincts are still at work. For that first discovery of
fire made us masters of certain conditions and it has fascinated us
as enlightened people. Furthermore, we emerged from the primeval
water, but harken constantly back to its sound and its feel. We
find Christ in the new fire coming to life; we are washed in water
and emerge out of it as new people, baptized into his body, the
Church. With the fire we light our individual tapers and now this
Paschal Candle; with the Easter water we bless ourselves and all
creation. We celebrate God's blessing in making us Easter People
through fire and water.

The third of today's symbols is that of the Easter Egg. It is
the sign of new life, for from it the chick will emerge. I retell
the Easter story of last year. Sister Imogene -- my first teacher
of sixty three years ago -- taught us catechism and still lives as
a spry 103 year-old, wondering why the Lord has left her around so long.
In 1941, she asked us second graders for an example of a "mystery,"
and I told about my mother's chicken incubator in which all the
eggs, though laid at different times, hatched on the same day.
That mystery of life is still a mystery to me. Note: the key was
the little kerosene lamp which was lit at a certain time. But when
as a seven year old I wondered why, it became part of my search for
God, to ask why, why, why Lord is there new life? God's ever
present love is shown clearly in this gift of new life, a
story retold each succeeding Easter. The chicks which filled our
house with sound gave us joy; the sound of praise on this day fill
us with the joy that Christ rises.

Today we share our new life with those baptized and received
into the Church on last night's Holy Saturday event, and we also
share meals and fellowship with believers throughout our land and
the world. We share because Christ has come to share new life with
us and make us truly Easter People.

March 28, 2005 Bless the Earth

The Easter ceremony that most impressed me in my youth was not
directly in the church building itself but involved obtaining a jar
of Easter Water. This was blessed at the solemn Holy Saturday
liturgy; we carried the water home to bless the fields in order that
God's blessings given to us so generously would be extended to all
the creatures with whom we lived. We blessed the dogs and cats,
the cattle, each of the fields, the front yard, the garden, the
orchard, and the tobacco beds. All of these were part of our
livelihood and necessary for going forward in life. "Come to the
waters" is the recent song expressing the longing for God's
blessing as we went field to field blessing everything. We were
somewhat secretive because nearby Protestants would not understand
what we were doing; blessings have public and private aspects.

Blessings of new life are part of our mission, namely to
proclaim the good news to all creation. The good news is that we
can enhance and not snuff out life, that we can revitalize with the
help of the Creator, not be messengers of the culture of death.
The blessed water is that sacrament of transformation. If we can
bless with deep faith in resurrection, then we can bring the fire
of faith to others who are unable to believe. In bringing water to
them, we baptize creation in the Trinity and elevate our lowly
environment to a high status. In this simple way we are
instrumental in healing the Earth by sprinkling creation with
Easter Water. It is through this blessing that creation, so long
eagerly awaiting its own salvation, now receives it through our
instrumentality. We share in God's saving power.

What does blessing the Earth do for us? First, we see the
importance of our mission of proclamation of good news. We are
called by God to bring new life to the world. Second, we respond
by carrying the sacrament originating in the Liturgical Service
to those creatures which did not attend or fully understand. The
Easter Water certainly is used to bless the poor in senior citizen
wards and the shut-ins; it is spread to all who welcome it. Third,
we realize the power at our hands and that is part of the faith
swelling up within us. In performing the blessing, we affirm that
the Earth can and is renewed and that we are part of the act, not
silent bystanders. We need to pause at damaged landscape and
extend our blessing to it. We could stop at those crosses of so
many accidents and offer a blessing there as well.

A blessed Earth awaits its fullness. What we also do in
blessing the Earth is forgive those who have hurt it in any way.
We cannot forgive an ongoing disruptive act, even when we attempt
to excuse the greed and ignorance involved. We must act to stop
the damage lest our blessings will return to us. But once the
culprit is truly sorry, we must be the first to forgive so that new
life will come quickly to this wounded Earth. This is the time of
extending blessing; this is Easter Monday with more days to follow
-- all blessings from God to us and from us to others.

March 29, 2005 Environmental Art

Tomorrow is the 152nd birthday of the impressionist Vincent
Van Gogh. We are impressed by his vivid colors and scenes and
might be tempted to call him the father of environmental art; he
certainly felt his environment and attempted to communicate that
feeling to all his viewers. However, he had no monopoly on
environmental art. In fact, anyone who tries to communicate
through artifacts the depth of feelings about nearby plants,
animals, and the world in which they live, could be labeled as
such, even when they never gain the notoriety of a Van Gogh.

I have the privilege of a close friendship with another
environmental artist, John Freda, who lives, paints and gives art
shows with his wife Sandra out of his Evanston, Illinois home and
studio. John was instrumental in organizing the largest
environmental art show ever assembled; this was presented at the
North American Conference on Christianity and the Environment at
North Webster, Indiana in August, 1987. As one could surmise, John
is both an accomplished artist and environmental activist who is
committed to work for the betterment of our battered Earth and its
less-privileged inhabitants.

What I have learned from those who are engaged in
environmental art is that they seek to both enhance the impressions
of the world around them, and in this more pro-active age they seek
ways to conserve resources and lead to less harmful lifestyles and
practices. Currently, one Eastern Kentucky painter produces scenes
to show the terrible toll taken by mountaintop removal (for
stripping land for coal) on our Appalachian landscape. Another
painter in Ohio strives to give impressions of what abandoned
factories do in blighting a community. These people are inclined
to promote causes which go beyond their own artistic circle. They
have messages for the public which they proclaim through art.

One side of me says that this crusade is beyond the mission of
art which is to communicate what is within the artists. However,
when artists are part of a total community torn by the destruction
all around, is it wrong to portray their effort as a passing
fashion? We sense their need to arouse the public in a dynamic
political atmosphere where people still have a voice in saving the
Earth. We can make important differences, and artists, who are
both democratically inclined and have a grasp on what needs to be
communicated, can do just that.

Environmental art does something more; it invites the general
public to participate in art- or craft-making. We are on this
planet together and few of us give attention to the awesome task of
healing the Earth. What concerned artists do is express that duty
in their own unique way. We are all called to do the same
according to our own talents and inclinations. If we know some,
whether young or old, who are inclined to engage in an art form,
let's encourage them to develop their abilities and support them in
their efforts.

March 30, 2005 My Conflict with Crows

I like to tell children stories from my youth dealing with
animals. Unfortunately, my relationship with my spirit creature --
the crow -- is often omitted. Let me tell you why.

Some make pets out of crows; we regarded them as arch-enemies
even while admiring them. In youth, we each would bear arms from
our earliest years. We boasted that game wardens dared not
enforce "off hunting seasons" because of our year-round war against
the crows. Crows may have been here for millennia, but we had
pressing economic interests, namely, fields of corn. And crows
loved to either pull up the small seedlings in spring or rip open
the filling ears to taste a little of the milky green corn in
summer. Our warfare was so real that we would never hunt a
harmless rabbit or innocent deer; hunting meant crow warfare.

Crows are smart; they work as sophistical social units and
they have little regard for the non-crow world around them. We
checked their habit of moving down a corn row when the seed had
sprouted and pulling up plants to get to the seed itself. We treated
the seeds with a tar that made them bitter to the taste. But the
crows' major offense came in mid-summer when they would settle and
tear open a fresh green corn ear and eat a little of the "roasting
ear." One ear was never enough; they would move to another and
damage each ear in the process. And they came in flocks. Crows
were able to know whether we were carrying a stick or a rifle or
shotgun. I think they even knew the range of each firearm.

Several of us youth plotted about ambushing the crows on
their return to evening roosts across the Ohio River after invading the
lush cornfields of our part of Kentucky's Buffalo Trace counties.
We observed that they would fly low over a ridge at a particular
time each evening after the foraging. So three of us armed with
shotguns went late in the afternoon after milking the cows and
prepared for an ambush at dusk. The stream of perhaps a thousand
crows could be seen coming from a distance, defiantly cawing; we
reviled in glee that we could get a number of them with a
synchronized volley. However, the lead crow scout came over ahead
of the incoming wave, saw us, turned a somersault with a peculiar
squawk and headed away at right angles. The entire flock turned
and bypassed us by a mile and then returned to their regular path. We
watched in amazement with guns still cocked.

Some mention crow blinds, stuffed owls and scare crows, but we
discounted such devices. Our crows would perch and laugh at such
artifacts. Our best luck was to use a dead crow well wired to a
pole; it drove fellow crows nuts trying to remove the corpse; they
simply did not feast in corn patches where these fallen birds were
present. We got dead crows only in the early spring by shooting
into crow nests when the parent was incubating the eggs. We got
a few older ones and, after hatching, we got some youngsters before
leaving their nests. They made for good "chicken tasting" gourmet meals.
No fair! Now see why I don't tell crow stories to kids.

March 31, 2005 Kentucky Heartwood

Every month we focus on an organization that is
doing a noble job in helping to heal our wounded Earth. Perhaps few
groups are doing more to protect our endangered forestlands in the
Bluegrass State than Kentucky Heartwood. Its purpose is to restore
native forest ecosystems, end public lands logging, mining and gas
& oil drilling, and halt public lands off-road vehicle use. The group
also seeks to foster proper wood and alternative fiber use as well
as ecologically responsible logging on private forest land.

For most of its existence Kentucky Heartwood has been a
volunteer organization. Chris Schimmoeller was the first
coordinator for a decade or so, and now the group is ably run by
Perrin de Jong. Both have been quite articulate in defense of
proper management of the U.S. Daniel Boone National Forest which
comprises over a million acres of eastern Kentucky. In the past
few years Kentucky Heartwood has coordinated efforts with citizens
to develop a forest plan and expose the shortcomings of the
selected route taken by the U.S. Forest Service.

Kentucky Heartwood has led activist workshops on contesting
logging operations on federal lands and acted as an aggressive
watchdog of the forest commons. The group is at the forefront of
new issues involving development and exchange of forest lands, coal
extraction, road construction, development projects, controlled burns,
and a number of other issues. Kentucky Heartwood is not afraid to
take legal action, to expose corporate/governmental good ole' boy
networks, and to respond to those who claim the group won't allow logging
advocates to infiltrate its organization and pack its ranks with
opponents -- a favorite anti-environmental tactic in many parts of
the country.

I feel close to Kentucky Heartwood because it was born at our
ASPI Nature Center about fifteen years ago -- and it has come a
long way since then. Though not inclined to their degree of
activism, I strongly endorse their programs and attempt to support
them through moral and financial support as well as promotion on
this website.

Visit Kentucky Heartwood and learn how to join or make a
donation <www.kyheartwood.org>. Every bit helps.

Copyright © 2007 Earth Healing, Inc. All rights reserved.

Albert J. Fritsch, Director
Janet Powell, Developer
Mary Byrd Davis, Editor
Paul Gallimore, ERAS Coordinator

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Daily Reflections by Al Fritsch, S.J.

Daily Reflections
by Al Fritsch, S.J.