Meditations on some books and my backyard

I used my Barnes and Noble birthday gift card today. Two picks:

Stephen Dunn's Everything Else in the World and Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest.

I figured they'd balance themselves out. Stephen sold me with his beginning poem (A Small Part) in which this fitting line appeared:

but I was so young I believed
Ayn Rand had a handle on truth.

Heh.

The other book was Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawkens.

Paul Hawkens estimates there are well over a million organizations and probably more across the globe fighting for environmental sanity and social justice. I belong to one of the more visible, but there are hundreds of thousands of others and it will ultimately be up to every single one of these organizations to pressure the politicians and the corporations to change the whole concept of business and the way things are done.

I think we can start by cutting military spending by 3/4s; killing agricultural subsidies and pouring those funds into locally owned agri-businesses and the development of alternative energy infrastructure (Wind/Solar). I just finished reading a wonderful piece about a company that came on line--thanks to the foresight of the German government--whose 'business' model is taking methane producing bovine waste (manure) and capturing it for use in the energy grid.

Why aren't we doing something like that? I've got enough dog doo doo in my backyard to power a small house. I've also got Chinese squash, tomatoes, beans, basil and enough cucumbers to satisfy the entire Hotel New Hampshire. Next year, I'm planting peach trees in place of the standard Dogwoods in these parts. And my cedar 'separators' are going to make room for plum and grape. I might even get a goat, methinks.


Here's a little more from Stephen Dunn:

Clouds with periods of sun, says our weatherman.
Unlike some of us, he never intends to lie.
Many here who look no further than their yards
believe God has a design.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Bush's God has no design, so til your garden.