Using the Pen - Words or Art?

Words. Words. Words. I am overwhelmed by too many words. Words in year-end emails from tens of organizations. Subject lines: "This is an emergency." "Time is running out." "Make a difference." "We're down to the wire." "Double your impact."

These are just the emails from environmental and social justice organizations; most are asking for donations, or my support on a petition, or letter writing campaign.

And of course there are dozens of emails from online stores wanting me to buy, buy, buy.

And emails from other groups - arts and community groups.

And then there are different kinds of emails, ones containing words of analysis. Everyone it seems has a solution to offer, words of hope or despair to put out there.

I am in overload.

As just one example, here are some words from someone at the Broadbent Institute responding to the despairing concern expressed by his 14 year old son after hearing of the IPCC report on climate change:

Positive change is always possible and it’s never too late to set things right....I’ve seen amazing progress on issues as varied as LGBTQ rights and the banning of ozone-destroying chemicals. If we can protect the ozone layer, we can save the climate.[There is] incredible power in people working together; the collective commitment of those around the world who want to see the climate protected, will not be denied. [Adapted from https://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/making_progress_in_tough_times_lessons_from_2018]

But I find these words to be rather empty, especially when compared with the powerful thoughtful analysis of someone like Joanna Macy. Macy, with her background in Buddhism parallelling systems thinking, has developed - along with colleagues - an approach she terms "the work that reconnects". She envisages this work as spiralling through four successive stages: Coming from Gratitude, Honoring our Pain for the World, Seeing with New Eyes, and Going Forth. As she says, these four stages "support one another, and work best when experienced in sequence. They help us experience first hand that we are larger, stronger, deeper, and more creative than we have been brought up to believe."

And, speaking of despair, Macy says: "When we chose as a group to allow and express feelings of grief, outrage, or fear about what is happening to our world, that a sense of liberation emerged, along with increased energy and alertness. Instead of being mired in despair, the opposite occurred. We had tapped into the depths of our caring, and that caring reveals a mutual belonging." [https://greattransition.org/publication/serving-the-earth-serving-one-another]

Because yes, it is grief that is miring me in despair and overload. How hard it is not to succumb. I have so much admiration for Joanna, who has been doing this work for decades, and still finds the zest and energy to go forward.

I highly recommend her work, and both the website The Work that Reconnects,  https://workthatreconnects.org/ and Joanna Macy's website https://www.joannamacy.net/.

Since I was in my twenties my writing has circled endlessly around the same subject - the constant, and increasing, degradation that I see eroding the natural environment around us, and the seeming futility of human effort (including my own) to prevent, or turn around, that degradation.

Just in the last few months, I have discovered that art can be an antidote to despair.  In art, I can use my writing tools differently, and lose myself to the joy of colour, form and line. It is just pure fun!  I don't care if my efforts have any artistic merit; they have no purpose other than the exploration of what happens with line and color.

At the Beaver Pond

Beavers have been busy at the foreshore in Salmon Arm. Wire wrapped around the trees have not deterred them; instead, each section of wire has been carefully chewed around. This image was taken November 29, 2018 at the original beaver pond on the SABNES - Raven trail.

Here is how the tree looked December 17, 2018:

And by December 26, 2018, the felled tree had been carted off -- presumably by a beaver:

The work by beaver is not limited to just the beaver pond. This is at the boat basin:

So I have started doing a bit of reading about what other cities do about beavers. I found "Beaver Management Guidelines" in Oshawa and Red Deer which talk about the significance of beaver in the ecosystem -- but also talk about problems of blocked culverts and downstream flooding.

In some places beavers are trapped as part of a management process.

I doubt that the beaver activity on the SABNES trail will lead to flooding, or blocked culverts. I see a pond created by the damming of a creek which would normally be draining directly into the marsh area. The habitat provided gives more diversity than what would normally be there.

The main risk might be that partially chewed trees might fall over on the trail, or the railway tracks. While there is no doubt it is sad to see a large tree felled, most are willows and poplars which will regenerate from the stump.

This is from the November 2012 issue of the SABNES newsletter:

Beavers on the Foreshore
It’s more than a year since beavers have been lodged in the middle of the pond immediately west of the first boardwalk on the foreshore trail. At first they began to demolish the willows on the north side of the pond, and SABNES took action to protect some of the larger trees in that area. Now the beavers have become active on the south side of the pond and are attacking the trees which line the trail. The rate at which they can partially demolish a sizable tree is astonishing and these could become a hazard to pedestrians over a single night.

Salmon Arm councillors have agreed to let SABNES address this issue. SABNES does not want to interfere with the beavers, who are important members of wetlands ecosystems. Decapitated willows rapidly regenerate themselves. Nevertheless, SABNES will continue to protect the larger trees by surrounding their lower trunks with wire netting. Trees which become hazardous will be cut down and tossed into the area near the pond to provide the beavers with sustenance.

The beaver pond is one of my favorite places to visit on the nature trail. It is peaceful, and there is always a kingfisher, or flicker, or scores of blackbirds, to accompany my thoughts. Thank you to the beavers for creating it.