I imagine Benny, wet and happy, as he streams through the woods. You, pant legs sopping wet . Running full speed, pondering the moment at the same time. It does seem we balance precariously, as we walk the tightrope of time.
I read your post this morning, then headed out for a hike . Still noticing the after effects of a very significant weather event, causing severe flooding in some areas in Vermont. Not near the biblical plague like intensity of Susie Mawhinney’s catastrophic weather event,nevertheless I started thinking. My usual morning route took on new meaning. The ancient uprooted Pine it’s massive form lay dead in the water. A prominent swathe of eroded hillside, left in its wake. The direction of the river now forever altered. What of the wildlife it took with it. When I survey a moment of storm, the narrative of the future does seem to hang in the balance.
Yours is a beautiful poem of a moment, cause and effect.
“…this is my witness statement highlighting one simple moment in the complex flow of moments.”
Maybe if everyone had to come up with just one statement…
I like that idea of Climate Witness Statements. That could be a thing.
Some while back I worked on a project involving youth climate activists. They tended to come from the more well educated and prosperous classes in their respective countries because they were the only ones with the social capital to access to NGO's and government funding etc. Because they were usually funded by or associated with large organisations they also quite quickly began to use the vocabulary and symbolic concepts of these organisations, which means quite quickly they also began to talk about climate breakdown and associated effects in very large scale ways: economic challenges or reparations or agricultural impacts or eventual climate migrations and such like. All of which were valid and important.
But they also tended to accelerate away from the subtle and devastating small effects that accumulate over short periods of time. The slow degradation of certain insects, or the way certain species noticeably move slowly north (or south) with the rising temperatures, or the way more trees are felling or snapping or uprooting because of drier periods at (crucially) the wrong time of the year.
I like the idea of witness statements where tiny but significant changes are noticeable in everyday ways to everyday people. Like the way clouds seem to have changed personality a little, or that it rains harder than it once did. Or whatever.
Maybe I should write about some of those experiences too? Watching the institutionalisation of activists, which inevitably lessens their impact and aligns them with larger forces (that are most often more foe than friend?).
“Maybe I should write about some of those experiences too? Watching the institutionalisation of activists, which inevitably lessens their impact and aligns them with larger forces (that are most often more foe than friend?).”
Yes, you should.
Ticks! Are a perfect example of tiny changes affected by weather patterns. Approximately ten years ago, we did not have to be concerned with ticks in Vermont. They were a ‘plague’ of southeastern coastal areas. We would say, don’t visit Cape cod, the ticks are terrible. If you wore shorts, or even sandals ,they would crawl up your leg and embed themselves. Gone are the days of lying in the grass without a care. Hiking looks different. Long pants, long sleeved shirts . Pant legs tucked into socks. Returning home requires immediate removal of clothing, body ( including crevices) looked over .Check the dog. Clothing washed immediately. Dogs and cats without protection could be covered with swollen , fat pumpkinseed shaped ticks in 24 hrs. We are 6 hours north. Now, due to climate change, we are warmer and they have spread to VT. This is now our own scenario .Our animals must wear poisonous collars,or topical gooey poison. Oral tablets as a last resort. The list of side effects is long. Human contact, ticks embedded for longer than 24hrs ( so they say) exposes us to Lyme disease, as well as other tick born diseases that wreak havoc. Brain fog, intense knee pain, personality changes, to name a few. Wildlife , such as Moose. As many as 90,000 ticks have been counted on a single moose ( wouldn’t want that job ). Engorged and literally having a blood feast while leaving an animal weakened from blood loss and disease. This is even happening in the winter, due to our increasingly warmer and rainy winters, (my favorite time of year, I am a skier at heart, my snow! 😕)
You should, write about it, but of course, talk it over with Benny. I’m sure he’ll agree. Especially if you read him the dog part.
This lengthy rant, is my everyday ‘witness statement’ . Tiny insect, tiny but massively significant changes.Ugh.
I’m heading out the door to swim with Ranger. I feel like little things are crawling all over me.
Precarious world, wonderfully put.
That's exactly it, the delicate precariousness, that we approach with a mallet. Thanks so much Dinah :)
I imagine Benny, wet and happy, as he streams through the woods. You, pant legs sopping wet . Running full speed, pondering the moment at the same time. It does seem we balance precariously, as we walk the tightrope of time.
I read your post this morning, then headed out for a hike . Still noticing the after effects of a very significant weather event, causing severe flooding in some areas in Vermont. Not near the biblical plague like intensity of Susie Mawhinney’s catastrophic weather event,nevertheless I started thinking. My usual morning route took on new meaning. The ancient uprooted Pine it’s massive form lay dead in the water. A prominent swathe of eroded hillside, left in its wake. The direction of the river now forever altered. What of the wildlife it took with it. When I survey a moment of storm, the narrative of the future does seem to hang in the balance.
Yours is a beautiful poem of a moment, cause and effect.
“…this is my witness statement highlighting one simple moment in the complex flow of moments.”
Maybe if everyone had to come up with just one statement…
Yours in the moment ,
Lor
I like that idea of Climate Witness Statements. That could be a thing.
Some while back I worked on a project involving youth climate activists. They tended to come from the more well educated and prosperous classes in their respective countries because they were the only ones with the social capital to access to NGO's and government funding etc. Because they were usually funded by or associated with large organisations they also quite quickly began to use the vocabulary and symbolic concepts of these organisations, which means quite quickly they also began to talk about climate breakdown and associated effects in very large scale ways: economic challenges or reparations or agricultural impacts or eventual climate migrations and such like. All of which were valid and important.
But they also tended to accelerate away from the subtle and devastating small effects that accumulate over short periods of time. The slow degradation of certain insects, or the way certain species noticeably move slowly north (or south) with the rising temperatures, or the way more trees are felling or snapping or uprooting because of drier periods at (crucially) the wrong time of the year.
I like the idea of witness statements where tiny but significant changes are noticeable in everyday ways to everyday people. Like the way clouds seem to have changed personality a little, or that it rains harder than it once did. Or whatever.
Maybe I should write about some of those experiences too? Watching the institutionalisation of activists, which inevitably lessens their impact and aligns them with larger forces (that are most often more foe than friend?).
I'm not sure what Benny would say ;)
🙏🏼
“Maybe I should write about some of those experiences too? Watching the institutionalisation of activists, which inevitably lessens their impact and aligns them with larger forces (that are most often more foe than friend?).”
Yes, you should.
Ticks! Are a perfect example of tiny changes affected by weather patterns. Approximately ten years ago, we did not have to be concerned with ticks in Vermont. They were a ‘plague’ of southeastern coastal areas. We would say, don’t visit Cape cod, the ticks are terrible. If you wore shorts, or even sandals ,they would crawl up your leg and embed themselves. Gone are the days of lying in the grass without a care. Hiking looks different. Long pants, long sleeved shirts . Pant legs tucked into socks. Returning home requires immediate removal of clothing, body ( including crevices) looked over .Check the dog. Clothing washed immediately. Dogs and cats without protection could be covered with swollen , fat pumpkinseed shaped ticks in 24 hrs. We are 6 hours north. Now, due to climate change, we are warmer and they have spread to VT. This is now our own scenario .Our animals must wear poisonous collars,or topical gooey poison. Oral tablets as a last resort. The list of side effects is long. Human contact, ticks embedded for longer than 24hrs ( so they say) exposes us to Lyme disease, as well as other tick born diseases that wreak havoc. Brain fog, intense knee pain, personality changes, to name a few. Wildlife , such as Moose. As many as 90,000 ticks have been counted on a single moose ( wouldn’t want that job ). Engorged and literally having a blood feast while leaving an animal weakened from blood loss and disease. This is even happening in the winter, due to our increasingly warmer and rainy winters, (my favorite time of year, I am a skier at heart, my snow! 😕)
You should, write about it, but of course, talk it over with Benny. I’m sure he’ll agree. Especially if you read him the dog part.
This lengthy rant, is my everyday ‘witness statement’ . Tiny insect, tiny but massively significant changes.Ugh.
I’m heading out the door to swim with Ranger. I feel like little things are crawling all over me.
No tick check needed.