The global environmental crisis is not monolithic. Treating it as such will keep us from effectively addressing the many complex issues involved. (Photo by Philippe Bonnaire on Pexels) When it comes to the most urgent aspects of the current environment in which humans and other fauna and flora live, it's become a matter of course … Continue reading The Challenge in How We Think, Talk, and Act Regarding the Global Environmental Crisis
At every turn-- large and small-- we make the choice to take a closer look so we may see as clearly as possible or to look away and let "what is" remain obscured to us. It is the choice between clarity and obnubilation. (photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash) I didn't know the verb obnubilate. … Continue reading The Choice: Clarity or Obnubilation
Depending upon whether one follows the expansionist or the reductionist perspective, there are as many as eighteen and as few as four known species of Homo that have lived on this planet. In either case, there is only one living here today.{1} As the climate changes dramatically, a collective fear is that it will mean … Continue reading The Earth Changes But Persists
At some time and in some place, most of us have had the feeling of walking right on top of the footsteps of people here much earlier than we are now. For me, this feeling can happen almost anywhere. I felt it when walking down an old wharf in Boston, thinking I may be walking upon … Continue reading Covering Shared Ground
PART 4—The Rise of Fast Fashion and Its Impact on People and the Planet; What Can You Do for Your Part? Much of the history of clothing, and cotton in particular, has been a harsh one for both humans and the environment. The millennia-long slave trade was furthered for cotton production in the United States, … Continue reading The Human and Climate Costs of Our Perpetually New Clothes- Part 4 (of 4)
PART 3—Going Global in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Century By the time the cotton mills in North Carolina were shut down, much of the country’s textile work had already moved overseas. But today, the United States is still the world’s second largest producer and exporter of raw cotton. Producing roughly 4,000 thousand metric … Continue reading The Human and Climate Costs of Our Perpetually New Clothes- Part 3 (of 4)
Part 2--The Long Road to Fast Fashion: US Textile Boom and Bust in the 20th Century By the end of the Civil War, two other factors, one huge in scale and the other household-sized, were changing the United States and its textile industries. One was the railroad and the other was the consumer-marketed sewing machine. … Continue reading The Human and Climate Costs of Our Perpetually New Clothes- Part 2 (of 4)
PART 1—The Long Road to Fast Fashion: Prehistory to 1920 Regularly on the move when I was a kid, we lived in many different regions of the United States—the Midwest, the West Coast, New England, the Southeast, and Texas. We lived in large, small and mid-sized cities, but always in the suburbs. It wasn’t until … Continue reading The Human and Climate Costs of Our Perpetually New Clothes- Part 1 (of 4)
I can vividly recall a most disturbing sensation I've experienced more than a few times. It would overtake me on those occasions when I found myself face to face with a reality that belied what I was certain I knew to be true. These weren't so much factual assertions as positions I held about life … Continue reading Ground Beneath My Feet
Not long ago a friend put a piece of the earth’s crust in my hand. When I first held the rock, I was stunned. Its exceptional density is the most visible and tactile characteristic, but just holding it in my hand, it seemed I was feeling the electro-magnetic pulse of the earth itself. Not stunning or grandiose … Continue reading Origin Story
The stream was deep but clear, allowing a perfect view of the mallard’s feet paddling furiously but going nowhere. Certainly the mallard was working against the current, but I wondered if any of the effort went to keeping him afloat. The water in the nearby lake was too murky to have revealed the feet to … Continue reading Deep Presence
I was looking at the deep past and the effect was trance-like. Without forethought I found myself talking softly but directly to him. I didn’t expect a response. I just kept talking, almost whispering really. What was I saying; I don’t even remember. It was a stream-of-consciousness flow that was coming from some alpha-state on my part. The … Continue reading Encounter with Eternity
The Principles of Being 