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cranky/dust/trees

updated sat 1 may 04

 

primalmommy on fri 30 apr 04


I am a bit crabby myself this week due to an inability to breathe. The
joys of (adult onset) asthma I have experienced thus far are just the
tip of the iceberg, apparently. Now my kids get a chest cold and I get
slammed... then teach at the guild -- (the dust of 7 hours with forced
air heat, 10 spinning wheels, and 10 dust-tracking, clay-unbagging,
air-stirring students) -- means nights with the inhaler in one hand and
the phone in the other ready to call 911 if I can't start breathing
again... means more chest x-rays and handfuls of prescription drugs,
each with it's own nasty side effect.. the damn rescue inhaler that
opens up my lungs also makes my hands shake so hard I can hardly make a
demo pot.. my voice is a squeak and a whisper, I cannot sing to my
child, call a kid in for supper, or read a story without stopping to
gasp mid-sentence.. I cannot plant my lettuce without sitting to gasp
for air.. and I have now been told no more coffee, even decaf, no
beer/alcohol or carbonated beverages, no spicy food, no chocolate, no
cream/butter/anything worth eating. I get up in the morning and stare at
my coffee pot and sigh (wheeze).

I am wallowing in anger and self pity to the point where I will NOT
(today) launch into a post about fiber, silica, nonchalance about safety
because it would be long and "caustic" and the same old tune anyway. Do
what you want. But breathing is a GOOD thing. If you take it for granted
and advise newbies to ignore basic safety rules, I promise I will come
to your house and hold a pillow over your face so you have to fight for
every breath. For, like, a week.

It's a world I don't understand, folks. Some lady wants to have surgeons
carve her face into some kind of alien comic book character with all the
charm of a praying mantis, as 'art".. OK, interesting, maybe even
artistic. If it caught on, it would sure explain all those characters in
Star Trek. But in the back of my mind I have to think, "Somebody is
failing to appreciate the longer term plan, here... " what happens when
you want your face back? All the kings horses and all the kings men
couldn't make michael jackson a real nose again.. Maybe art has to be
bigger than an individual and his/her potential regrets.. maybe we're
willing to sacrifice an ear, her and there, for the greater good. I am
not good at not seeing that part. If my pulmonologist tells me no more
clay I am sure the art world will have lost nothing but I will be a very
sad and sorry person indeed.

And mel wrote:
>there are fifty one percent more trees growing in america
>today than in 1950. alarm bells, `all the trees are gone`.

Mel, you are counting the endless miles of monoculture, planted by the
timber companies as stands of lumber to be measured -- not in its
ability to support a diverse ecosystem -- but in board feet. One kind,
the tallest straightest and most marketable, biding its time waiting to
be clearcut. Somebody stencilled on the Forest service signs in oregon
the words "tree Nazis".

A cornfield is not a meadow. 5000 cattle in a stockyard are not
wildlife. Little pruned decorative "tidy" trees lining suburban
sidewalks are nice but they don't feed wildlife, they don't make a
forest - just a ring of mulch in a chemlawn desert of monoculture green
grass.

Biodiversity is what is lost. They knew it in the 50s and it's still
happening.

More trees are nice.. but not all who are alarmed are alarmists.

wheeze, gasp, grumble, cough
Kelly in Ohio
having a bad week and literally crying in my bitter cup of Postum..
which is awful but I am allowed to pretend it's coffee..




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