fuzzies!

guerrilla poetry

every day is earth day

in honor of earth day, and to offset some of the vitriol i spewed last night, here are some of my favorite passages from terry tempest williams’ “the open space of democracy”:

Our insistence on democracy is based on our resistance to complacency. To be engaged. To participate. To create alternatives together. We may be wrong. We will make mistakes. But we can engage in spirited conversation and listen to one another with respect and open minds as we speak and explore our differences, cherishing the vitality of the struggle (11).

The Arctic is balancing on an immense mirror. The water table is visible. Pools of light gather: lakes, ponds, wetlands. The tundra is shimmering. One squints perpetually (28).

Drinking from the river—I am drinking from the river—this tincture of glaciers, this press of ice warmed by the sun. If water can pool in one’s heart, then my heart is full. My arid heart has been waiting for decades, maybe three, for the return of the childhood pleasure of drinking directly from the source (31).

Experience opens us, creates a chasm in our heart, an expansion in our lungs, allowing us to pull in fresh air to all that was stagnant. We breathe deeply and remember fear for what it is—a resistance to the unknown (32).

What will we make of the life before us? How do we translate the gifts of solitary beauty into the action required for true participatory citizenship? (42)

The open space of democracy provides justice for all living things—plants, animals, rocks, and rivers, as well as human beings (51).

Here is my question: what might a different kind of power look like, feel like? And can power be distributed equitably among ourselves, even beyond our own species? (58)

The power of nature is the power of a life in association. Nothing stands alone. On my haunches, I see a sunburst lichen attached to limestone; algae and fungi are working together to break down rock into soil. I cannot help but recognize a radical form of democracy at play. Each organism is rooted in its own biological niche, drawing its power from its relationship to other organisms. An equality of being contributes to an ecological state of health and succession (58).

We have made the mistake of confusing democracy with capitalism and have mistaken political engagement with a political machinery we all understand to be corrupt. It is time to resist the simplistic, utilitarian view that what is good for business is good for humanity in all its complex web of relationships. A spiritual democracy is inspired by our own sense of what we can accomplish together, honoring an integrated society where the social, intellectual, physical, and economic well-being of all is considered, not just the wealth and health of the corporate few (86/87).

making nonsense

Spoon 1: Understand the following is Science:

Fork is the mom,
Spoon is the daughter,
Spork is the niece;
Spoon and Spork are cousins,
Spork is a scientist,
Spork is Science,
Magic is Science’s gay cousin,
Spoon is gay,
Therefore, Spoon is Magic.
It is Science.

Spoon 2: It is Gynecology.

Spoon 1: Gynecology is Science.

Spoon 2: Gynecology is the best Science.

It is clearly Gynecology!

Spoon 1: Science!

Spoon 2: I know now where I lost my knee brace!

I was on the hill by the gas station,
eating a raspberry shave ice.
It is on the hill in the grass by the gas station,
where I was eating my raspberry shave ice.

Spoon 1: That is neither here nor there.

Spoon 2: But it is Gynecology.

Spoon 1: I concede to your superior power of logics.

new season's resolutions

i’m working on a list of goals for this spring and summer. let’s see how many of these things i can do:

· start composting
· experiment more with camera settings
· do more sewing—canvas bags especially, so i can give them away to people who want to stop using plastic
· eat more locally grown/organic produce
· try new recipes
· get a birdfeeder, and a hummingbird feeder, and remember to keep them full
· start painting again
· spend more time reading outdoors
· print a lot of new t-shirts

that’s all i can think of for now. i took a walk earlier and did lots of playing around with camera settings; mixed results, but i learned a ton. the sky was such a rich blue today, and there are so many things in bloom…i could’ve gone for less wind and higher temperatures, though. headwinds have been murdering me on my bike lately.

i have a new obsession: vegan blogs. i came across one randomly, and it had links to a gazillion other ones, and they all had links to a gazillion other ones, and so on. most of them were amazing. i’m going to start a little list of links that will probably grow later. i’m not putting this one on the list, because it’s much too fancy, but behold how magnificently insane: http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/

maybe i’ll start taking pictures of things i cook, and posting recipes and such. perhaps that should be part of my “try new recipes” resolution, because normally i’m a very lazy vegan…most of the stuff i cook is just thrown together, and not yummy looking (but always yummy tasting). i rarely follow recipes, and i rarely spend more than half an hour on a meal. my idea of gourmet is slathering some oat bread with hummus, mixing up a fantastic foods nature burger and topping it with sliced black olives and alfalfa sprouts. comfort food to the max. speaking of fantastic foods, they brought back tofu scrambler! praise seitan! now we just need to resurrect tuno and unturkey, and all will be right with the world.