Letter to Friends in Norway

To my Norwegian Friends:

When I visited your home and your country a few years ago I was struck by the advanced thinking that the people were involved with; the farmers were being supported to actively maintain the family farms, people could hike and camp all over the country and even on private property for a few days which made one feel more connected to the land and the beauty of the scenery. There was a major “fiesta” celebrating the immigrants in the area that we joined in on while we were there; eating all kinds of exotic foods and watching all kinds of dance and talks and commingling. There was a sense of safety and peace. There was a sense that the people were being taken care of; universal health care. There was a sense that the newly acquired oil wealth was not being squandered and was being reinvested in sustainable economics and green solutions of various sorts. The family is celebrated by many fantastic statues in Oslo. The policemen do not wear guns. There appeared to be a lot of tolerance, empathy and advanced thinking, such as: it appeared that the roads and power supply was often aesthetically driven; underground lines even in the terrain which was mostly rock, reasonable street signs, unspoiled views all over the place. My belief is that if aesthetics ( not the simple aesthetics but more profound notions of what that means) drive the show, then everything else sort of falls into place; no ugly street signs, no clear cutting, careful tending of the forests (like in Sweden where they get upwards of 30% of their energy from “biomass”), attention to good food, quality lives. They come from the land in their recent history and are still in love with it; the Norwegians were mostly farmers (on the land) or fisherpeople (remember all those sardines) and they retain that respect and love of the land and the way they show it now is as described above as well as lots of hiking and camping and outdoor activities, such as the one where so many young people were tragically mown down by a purportedly rightwing fundamentalist anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant terrorist. I am so sorry and pass this link on to my fellow Santa Feans, many of whom probably have connections to the wonderful Norwegian country and it’s people.

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5754/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4525

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Norway-PM-Extremist-views-are-legitimate-1607427.php#page-2

Remember Oslo (and Thor's Hammer)

Maybe we can begin to line up the forces at work in the world today and see what appears to be happening on a regular basis. Religious fundamentalism of any kind is at fault for so much pain and war that it poses a threat to society as a whole. President Carter ( who did not shed a drop of American blood during his time in office, reputedly) has identified the problem publicly and is posing himself (a deeply religious person) against fundamentalism. There is a difference between the borderline fundamentalist icons of Palin and Bachmann and Bush and Khamenei or Bin Laden (who are on or on the border of that danger zone) and Carter, who promotes acceptance and tolerance (except in the case of this fundamentalist danger). The reasons for the danger lie in the notions of connecting church and state (unconstitutional) and railing against truth; science (albeit “amoral” sometimes or subject to vulgar interpretations) representing truth and religious fundamentalism representing “fairy tales” that are obviously untrue; this fact not dissuading many people who do not seem to have the ability or education to see this. The “fairy tale” mentality also lends itself to the dark side of most fairy tales and religious mythology, which is often death and destruction ; jihadism, nationalism, Armageddon and Rapture, regal authority, religious authority, crusades, apocalyptic notions, rabid reactions to women’s rights (responsible for most of the destruction these days…..I think), gridlock in congress (trickle-down economics is your basic fairy tale), terrorism and the terror-like responses (torture, etc.) to terrorism, immoral history of Catholics in relation to sexual abuse in recent years and apartheid ( as suggested by many in relation to Israel….a basically religious community bent on ethnic cleansings of sorts). Now Oslo; a horrid reminder; guns in the wrong hands ( Tucson, remember that easily purchased …….. NRA idiots readily selling guns to madmen……..Glock with that insertable cartridge) send a clear message: hear about a religious ( or NRA; right-wing) fundamentalist and you had better run away really fast (or dial 911)……or both. It’s in the news; they will either shoot you or sell you the gun; no questions asked. It’s our right to know.

http://progressiveworldreview.com/2008/04/17/jimmy-carter-a-real-leader/

Dancing the Two-Step and Other Steps Too

What does, say, Thor's Hammer have to do with dancing, you might say. Well, here goes:

http://www.quotegarden.com/dancing.html

So when the hammer is thrown, it comes back into your hands.

So do the dancers, into each other's arms and into their own lives and bodies and souls.

But the ones who "stand there with their arms crossed or sit in their chairs and act like they are appreciating music" have a lot to learn about what they might gain from their vulnerability. The answer is: everything.

The act of creation, be it what some call art ( which should be, mostly, the reflection of a moment in time when some image or shape or feeling is called up if only so briefly and in such a ephemeral or clumsy way) or what some call craft (which is just a way of saying the artist has decided to make something useful or not necessarily profound) is the "hammer" and, like our dance partner, it enters into a synergetic relationship where stepping together creates an energy where anything one puts into it will be rewarded wonderfully.

A culture that has decided to look and listen and not dance is like a woodworker without a hammer; what was he thinking?

Now then, going to the Santa Fe Plaza and the Summer Bandstand and dancing to Zydeco music has got to be one of the most exciting things in the world or dancing to the African drummerss at the Railyard (on the grassy side of the park) and we just did it, along with a slew of wonderful dancers at both occasions.  After the African dancing (which we found was really great to polka or two step to….) we went over to La Fonda and danced some more to Bill Hearne and company (Auge was there on the pedal steel that night !) and last Saturday it was a “beach party” at La Tienda. Not bad for an old country couple. 

More later, folks; this one is not goin away

The Windmill

 

Land's heart is creek;
Susurrous sounds of infinite eddies;
Spelling life, shape changing daily;
The place to take the ducks
For soul regeneration and chest repair

Built heart being The Windmill
and the Tower, pumping, again.....
Water and marking time in circular fashion

Do you know how hard it is to get four strong 30 foot 6 x 6s
And bolt on 2 x 10 cross braces, X's in Golden Mean ?
Carrying the turn of the century on our backs,
bonding with the craftsmen who designed gears and pitmans and
Babbitt bearings, sucker rod and stuffing boxes,
back when cast iron was king, history turning to make way
For steel
do you know how hard it is to make a new "sail" ?
The old guy at the sheet metal place does,
"Do not bring me another one", says he,
"I had to cut those by hand and my hands hurt"

Do you know how to erect a 30 tower?Or climb one for that matter?
Well neither did I till 31 years ago.
Do you know how scary it is up there,
Begging the questions of death and disaster?
Well neither did I having given up rock climbing
After that episode with Monique up in Cape Breton.
...Bonding with the mast climbers of yore at sea,
borrowing their descriptions of what is happening
In the Wind.

And, cupful by cupful, breathe by breathe, whisper and gale;
the Windmill spins and groans, sounding for all intents and purposes
Like a whale
Dryland leviathan skeleton
Picturesque archetypal phenomenon;
water oozing from the pipe to feed the forests
"We" planted, quench the thirst and beat the drought.

The grown children remember it with chills and twinges
As they ruminate and visualize where they came from,
their memory spinner, Guardian and Constant.
Giant weather vane for all to see,
Perch for feathered friends in calm weather
They even told me so

And it is a monument; put on maps everywhere
Like Camel Rock or Morphy Lake
Like a natural spring; gotta know where they are.....
Like a watercress patch or a stand of ponderosas,
Like the old bulldozer with its front bucket,
Like a husband or a wife or child;
take photos at every chance as they are so beautiful
in this light and that

A mystery like a ship in the fog
A friend of many years who has watched you grow
And then grow old and you them.
Has been there for you and you for it.
Part of your life, like dandylions, blue flax, sunflowers
Part of your soul like windy days, rain and water

Part of your work, like your shop, your truck or your children
Something you would sorely miss if they were gone
Tragic as you ponder what you did wrong along the way
Like that burro that died young; only 25
So many years being there and then the dying silver-grey donkey
staring at you, leaning like a drunkard against the crawler
Seconds from the final fall that spelled the end
In ways only I, perhaps, will ever understand
Leaving a hole where a whirring stood

They say it is hard to kill a Swede
and I say it is hard to kill a donkey
Hard to hit the bullseye, Co, they shoot at the little" o"
way up there; too tempting it seems,
like tormenting burros
And easy to take a windmill for granted
Thanks to Aermotor's tough design
Rural gift.......of water and ...to be...
The heart of the land and the friend of
The homesteader......Part of.......
The Land Ethic

The Irony of Wildfire in Los Alamos

The atom bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fame,
Created in Los Alamos by teams of scientists;
Men and women working to make a blaze
That defied the scale of all blazes
Created firestorms that defy imagination of scale
Scorching cities and roasting humans

 And

 Today the flames lick the town, as it devoured hundreds of houses recently,

The flames not atomic, but rally around the same scale
Creating clouds not unlike the mushroom one,
Fooling drivers from Chama who peered carefully into car windshields
For a hint of panic on the faces of terror stricken motorists

 But, No, not this time;

 This time just a huge fire that rivals the atomic blast

Creating irony upon irony about the whole affair;
Nature bearing down on nuclear waste fields and plutonium reserves
In a kind of behemoth clash of the Titans
Staged between the Valle Grande and the Rio Grande
On the foothills namely Santa Clara sacred grounds;

 Scorched earth policies personified in a sort of;

What goes around comes around irony
Richest county in US of A on Fourth of July
Evacuating then......
Returning to celebrate, one more time,
“Bombs bursting in air” amidst cries from the populace;
“please no fireworks this year “, except for large scale
Public shows by public minded citizens using big boxes
Full of Chinese gunpowder;

All roads lead to White Rock and Los Alamos;

All fires please converge here and decided what to do with us
And the forests that have been lurking around, camouflaged
As wilderness; waiting patiently to be rediscovered.

 The gentle Swedes who scared themselves into pacifism and neutrality

Now  carefully invading their forests with love and chainsaws and modern tools
And quickly shedding the terror of oil; trading for the beauty of well tended forests
And winking at the  people who scurry with helicopters to dump slurry all over

Running around like chickens with their heads cut off

Wisdom From Dixon Orchards

I watched the news last night and, for the first time, I heard someone talk about something other than fireworks issues (no brainer) or the number of acres burned, how hard the firefighters are working (rarely  how much they are paid or what the total cost is), the percentage of containment (a vague number based on ?), how the Santa Fe watershed is safe (but the Nambe watershed is devastated) and the smoke.  An interview at the Dixon orchards which was first reported to be safe and then was found to be devastated was the first time I heard from someone close to the land who had a thought more piercing than the above banter.  He actually wondered why the forests had not been previously logged and thinned.  The nerve; to mention the unmentionable; why not wisely use the forests and get the wood and biomass before the fires do and protect the surrounding areas at the same time.  How dare he mention this kind of stuff when we are in the midst of a crisis like this (which occurs every summer with varying size and location).  How dare he suggest we create erosion in the forests by any roads (ever looked at the erosion caused by these fires).   Doesn’t he know we are in serious drought (of course we were in serious drought in 2000-2001, 2004, 2006 and pretty much every year).  Doesn’t he understand our love of trees (other than he is part of one of the most celebrated orchards in this country)?  Isn’t he just ignoring the need to protect our wilderness (believe me these areas are not wilderness areas, including the Pecos wilderness as they are the result of massive logging and poor management from 1850 to the present).  Maybe it is time to listen to some of these people and try something new other than a steady diet of controlled burns (if only they knew when to light that match), and compare millions of devastated acres to a network of very carefully thought out roads and access to the forests that would allow biomass fuel production (kind of a controlled burn wouldn’t you say), a way for the people to help out (rather than the easier job of hired hot shot firefighters, planes and fuel guzzling helicopters who can really do very little under these conditions).  All this is to appease the litigious guard dogs of the forests and the naïve enviros.  The solutions are right in front of us and represent billions and billions of btus that do not have to go up in smoke and can create jobs, a true environmentalist movement that is based on careful interaction with our forests, which represent the only thing that will prevent our civilization from collapsing.  Imagine; thousands of young people in clear and purposeful interaction with the one thing that will save our economy.  Hmmm…..sounds like a plan.  At least the subject should be raised rather than tossing off such thoughts as not cost effective (as the price of gasoline goes up, the cost effectiveness changes, doesn’t it).  There is a wealth of ideas out there that have been worked out in detail and are close to being foolproof.  I would look up Jean Pain for something that might be of interest to some and see that he was thinking of what to do in arid areas surrounded by forests.  Check it out as well as the numerous other possibilities.  Read Away With All Pests by Norman Bethune for some idea of what “the people” are capable of.  As Henry David Thorea said, “….the world is bigger than our view of it”!  In the end it is all about aesthetics as many have suggested.  When we solve the aesthetic problems (Santa Fe might be able to glom onto that idea) we are on the way to solving all the rest.  I find the aesthetics of helicopters and burned out watershed to be almost untenable.  How about you?  The forests are like the acequias and water rights; you don’t use them, you lose them.  That was the Law of the West.  We need more environmentalists who know how to use a chainsaw and a bulldozer properly.  Same goes for newscasters who reflect the air conditioned response to the problems and the lack of clarity by urban people for a rural problem. We need more people who can protect the watershed, the viewshed, the soil, the air quality and our economy at the same time. I pose the question: how many foresters do we have in the state?  What is their jobs? Is this about competing with oil interests?  Do most people know that utilizing biomass is carbon-neutral?  As Einstein suggested, “problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them”.