Do you have a love hate relationship with Earth Day? Here are some thoughts on this special day, and a few suggestions on ways a gardener can celebrate.
Every year I have a love hate affair with Earth Day. It's great people celebrate and feel good about it. It's a shame we have to have a day to remind us to care about the planet that supports us. It's great we have a great consciousness raising. It's a shame we need that. It's great we get kids involved in community service projects. It's a shame they can't be involved every day of the year. It's great we get these community service projects up and running for the day. It's a shame we need them at all. See how it goes around in my mind? Am I the only one who feels this way?
Somehow I don't think the overall "feel good-ness" of the day is what is needed. A sustained effort, a move toward sustainable practices in all parts of our lives, would be more useful and practical in the long run. I believe we are smart enough to make some progress in this if we make it a priority. Instead, I think we are all just drinking the Kool-Aid. (In fairness, I am using this as a snarky expression. Real Kool-Aid from Kraft is fine stuff as this nifty site complete with sound effects will prove.)
But it's asking a lot to ask people to make changes, it's so much easier to give a nod to the idea and celebrate and then go back to however we normally do things. Somehow, though, it seems like we have lost touch with the natural seasonal rhythms of life, the intereconnectedness between us and the rest of nature... but that is not to say I want to go back to some romantic idea of the rural life.
I just saw an exhibit at the Getty Museum with photogravures and so on from the late 19th century showing in a somewhat anthropological sense and in a stylized, artsy yet starkly graphic documentary way how people of the Norfolk Broads worked by hand -- they harvested water lily flowers for fish bait, set hand woven nets to catch eels, cut hay by scythe and forked it up and moved it in wagons pulled by horses, cut paths through the reeds or water rushes, bundled them neatly and loaded them into small boats, towed the small boats by walking and pulling along the tow path and then unloaded and stacked them yet again ... incredibly hard physical labor and after all that going home at night to a truly simple cottage. I'm glad I don't have to do that to make a living or to survive! P.H. Emerson Exhibit at the Getty
But I do wonder about the increase in average house size being built, the square footage per person. The poor gas mileage in popular model cars. The resources wasted thoughtlessly in things we take for granted every day. So maybe I recycle my bottled water bottles. I don't think that off sets having created them in the first place. What is the carbon footprint in that single item? I have no idea.
Earth Day offers a chance to evaluate our lives, maybe make a step or two towards being more "green" in our choices. I do have an easy one to suggest:
Share some plants or seeds with a friend or neighbor, or set your spare divisions out at the curb with a "Free!" sign on them. Share your plant wealth, spread the love and joy of gardening, and smile.
It's Earth Day, after all.
FLOWER GARDENS ARTICLES and FLOWER GARDENS BLOGS Copyright April 22 2007 Barbara Martin All Rights Reserved
