Category: Short Essays Page 11 of 14

Fire hydrants are like mushrooms that sprout from the miles of mycelium underground pipes. We don’t see ground water until it pops up in creeks, pond, lakes, and marshes. These, to me, are astounding. The word awesome is overused, so I’ve going to overuse an new term. The fact that we have water pressure because of elevated tank reservoirs is why the fire department can turn on hoses and we can turn on faucets.

I toured the Suffolk County Water Authorities lab complex in Hauppauge. The bottle lab, the pathogen lab, the volatile compounds lab, the herbicide, pesticide  testing lab and the museum with valves, photographs, pipes, geology, and history. Astounding.

Lab supervisor Francesco, who oversees the Volatile compounds lab showed us gas chromatograph machines that can pinpoint harmful, cancerous molecules to parts per trillion said with pride that the lab holds itself to the highest standard. He smiles and says “New York State’s lead level is 15 ppm. We hold it at 5ppm”. This tells me that the Suffolk County Water Authority has our back. We’ve got probably the purest water in the state. Nothing escapes the blue lab-coated chemists who wear latex gloves while they titrate, look under microscopes, and tend to their computers. These lab rooms are the reasons why we have safe potable water all the time.

With 1.5 million Suffolk residents and 800,000 cars, thousands of cess pools, millions of opportunities for chemicals to leach into the water table, the Water Authority has to monitor its over 250 wells on a regular basis. That’s a lot of small sterile plastic bottles. When they see something, they say something. Protecting the public is their highest priority. Let me say it again…astounding.

Water air and soil are probably the post taken for granted resources that we are in contact all the time. We are 70% water. I love to see water in the clouds and ocean waves as well as my adopted Sampawams Creek. The creek’s water quality is impared. This is not astounding.

The 700 employees work behind the scenes. They maintain over 300 miles of pipe. Let me say it one more time in capitols …ASTOUNDING!

“There is not a single thing different inside of everything than is in each of us. We’re all made of the same stuff. It’s the construction that’s different. That construction has a long period – going back some fifteen billion years to the beginning. We are left with construction plans in our DNA and genes that contain blueprints of all those earlier construction projects.”

Albert Sweitzer said these words in a lecture in 1913. He wanted us to see our connection to the big picture. Who, for example, recognizes themselves in their pet dog? There is no physical resemblance, but there is reciprocal love. We recognize ourselves by the dog’s love because we love. We see the dog having the same functions we have.

How do we recognize ourselves in a dragonfly?   Again, common functions provide the answer. What is important is the reason why we should look for similarities in all things. All is sacred. Every single smidge of matter, no matter how tiny or how huge, no matter how complex or how simple, offers us a looking glass to reflect. Communion of all different matter each with its own individuality is the key to understanding the reason for the universe. All things in the universe have three characteristics. They are interconnected, they are differentiated from one another, and they each have their own individuality.

If we recognize ourselves in the humblest of creatures, such as a caterpillar crossing a road, is there not the possibility that we will treat that caterpillar with respect and dignity?

Behind the endless diversity of life and non-life, we seek to recognize a spiritual creator that participates in everything. Seeing God in all creation is a good way to respect, treasure, and preserve.

I sat in the waiting room shaking. The principal wanted a meeting with me. I shook, sweat, and waited for the reprimand. I applied corporal punishment on one of my students. I squeezed his arm in anger. He pushed my buttons all too often. My classroom management was very poor. I happen to teach in one of the most challenging junior high schools in Suffolk County

I waited a long time stewing and imagining the worst. Finally “The principal will see you now.” His secretary said. I looked grim, I looked guilty, and I had been here before for the same offense. I had good reason to believe that my teaching job was at stake.

“What did he do.”? I stuttered, stammered, and choked as I told my side of the story. “He pushed the boy next to him off his chair. I walked over, took his arm and escorted him out of the room.”

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Twenty years ago, there were three environmental “R’s”; Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.

Recently a fourth “R” has become an upgrade to the first three; Refuse. At the checkout counter at Best Market, the clerk asked me “Do you want plastic bags” I was pleasantly surprised. I see clerks spreading open empty plastic bags for the next customer. The fifth “R” is Rethinking. I saw the word used on a Face book page of Carl Safina. It had me thinking, oh wait, Rethinking.

Recycling has reduced the refuse stream but, recycling implies that we keep consuming recyclable items. Reduce means consuming less recyclables. Reuse also falls into this category. All of these first four, have awakened us all that we have to cut back. Cutting back is a rethink.

At 7-11, I noticed five cars parked in front of the entrance all idling. The mindset is…”I’m only going to be a few minutes, why turn off the engine.” I turn mine off, and often bicycle to the store. Here is a major rethink that ascends to the corporate level. How do I rethink a policy to stop the idling? I’d start by communicating my concern. Gas is being wasted. Air is being polluted. Here is a chance for 7-11 to rethink. If this fails, I have to persist. Arrange a meeting with the manager of the store. Ask for their bosses, work my way up to the top level and CEO. I did this.

To rethink is to evolve, to make a midcourse correction. Radical rethink, micro rethink, it’s all good. Don’t hold that thought…rethink it. The little things to rethink are personal habits we have developed. Some of these fall into the five “R’’s”

When I wash my hands in a sink, I shake off the water enough so I don’t have to use a paper towel. This little thing is a rethink.

“Taxing a behavior tends to reduce it.” (“Faced with a new tas, Berkley Drinks Less Soda.” New York Times 8-25-16. All of us buy garbage. Packaging becomes garbage. For example. We made franks for supper and tossed out the plastic wrapper. Which goes into the trash can, into the garbage truck, and ultimately into a land fill. To rethink this chain is to try something new. Where to break the chain. I could go to a meat store and buy franks with paper wrapper. At least paper decomposes. A good, healthy tax on the second    can of garbage will have people trying to compact, reduce, rethink. Perhaps use bigger garbage cans, perhaps dumping in a vacant lot.

For rethink to become a reality, even on a community level, will probably take decades. Rethink can lead to substantial change. Ultimately, rethinking all six major institutions has to happen to begin to save our oceans, our land, our biota, us:

Financial; Education; Health; Legal; Political; Environmental

John Muir reminds us “When one tugs at a single thing in nature,one finds it connected to everything else.”

Let’s start in our own world. Find something you do, rethink it, see what  happens, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

If any major rethinks occur in any of the above institutions, the reverberations with be seismic!

Nancy and I are work-share members of the Homecoming farm in North Amityville. Tuesday mornings we arrive to fulfill our two hours of work in exchange for a bag of produce.

Harvesting was in full swing as we arrive. We were asked to pick beans. Don the farmer explained how. “Don’t pull weeds near the beans. Their roots are sensitive and will curtail bean production. Don’t yank the pods off. Instead cut them off gently.” We too shears and plastic buckets into the field. Although it was hot, a strong breeze cooled things off.

Harvesting beans is tedious with Don’s suggestions. I’d rather yank them off. Instead of cutting I found a way to extract the bean without cutting. I nipped it off with thumb and index finger. Many of the beds are choked with weeds. Other workers weeded. With the drought, weeds are difficult to pull. I tried kneeling and stooping and sitting. All three positions were difficult. After 45 minutes, I quit. Sore back, sore knees, thirsty, bathroom break, and frustration did me in.

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I can’t find my quiet. I lost it someplace. It’s not hearing loss I’m hoping for. It’s not “go away noise” I want. I only want a place where it’s quiet.

I’m asking for the impossible in a county with onepointfivemillion people and eighthundredthousand cars. There is no hope from the descent of our lawn care crew on Wednesday mornings.

I want to hide under a boulder where where is no sound, no noise (I will not mention the “N” word again). Wearing ear protectors is uncomfortable. One small moment of quiet peace is too much to ask for. “Go someplace quiet” you suggest. I have no reason to complain. I chose an unquiet place.

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1500 years ago, our Native American brothers had a vastly superior technology than ours today. They communicated by smoke signals with no phone bills. They traded, bartered, made wampum, no savings bank, no ponzi schemes, and no retirement. Don’t call their technology primitive. They had no landfills, no pollution, didn’t bottom out their source of nutrition. They didn’t have to go to a lumber yard to buy materials to build a shelter.No traffic jams, no air pollution, no junk yards, no assisted living. Their hobby was survival. Herbs became medicine and on and on.

The earliest people learned the old fashioned way…no internet, yes trial and error, yes to passing on their skills and knowledge to the next generation. This doesn’t sound like savage living to me. They observed their environment without having to look at a screen. They learned the physical properties of plants and animals and learned how to use them.
They found stones that could be chipped into arrow points. They found bushes that had straight stems and used them to make arrows. They found hickory trees and found them flexible enough to bend to make the skeleton for a wigwam and bows. Deer skin became clothing. They found tobacco, burned it, and as it rose, gave thanks for nature. They were not materialistic. If they wiped out a species, they’d have to move. They learned how to fish, build canoes, and weave baskets from vines.

Fast forward to today I had a recent experience that might parallel their process. I happened to accidentally break off a branch of a bald cypress tree. This is a rare tree here in Babylon but found in abundance in the bayous of Louisiana. I wanted to inspect the needles. I noticed that the bark split where the break occurred. I tried peeling off the bark. It came off easily and in long pieces. The bark didn’t break. With more experimentation, I scraped off the outer bark. What was left was a tough, flexible inner bark. I tied one in a knot. I’d accessed my Native brothers skills. I’d found a plant that could help me tie a wigwam structure. No lumber yard necessary.

I fill a tall glass with ice and top it with club soda. Within ten minutes, all the ice is gone. The glass sweats and so do I. It’s hot. It’s the dome. The dam dome just stays over me like the cathedral domes in Rome. It’s time to chill. I refuse to use a fan or air conditioning. I’m saving the Earth. I’m watering the garden and myself with cool spray from the hose. Then it’s time for lunch and I’m hot again. Can’t use stove or microwave – saving Earth.

I open the freezer quickly to remove ice cubes. I,m drinking three bottles of club soda daily. No tap water…too much chlorine. I use a wash cloth held under cold running water and swash neck, arms, face, legs. Hot again in four minutes. It’s time for serious geoclimatical action. Blast the dome with dry ice..anything. we got to move the #@*% dome. As a former science teacher, I know that drinking a cup of hot tea will cool me down. Yes, for ten minutes while the dome is hovering.

Watermelon, (ice cold and don’t leave the refrigerator door open) is good for about five minutes. Taking long naps in a pool of sweat may last a whole half hour. But all this time, the dome is laughing at me. I can’t get into the car, close the windows, and turn on the AC…trying to save the Earth. The dome hovers stationary while the jet stream goes south. Iced coffee and a temporary breeze, what’s better than that?

Just wearing underpants around the house. Back to the bathroom to swipe with cold water. But alas, the dome wins out. At my desk, my arms collect all the loose papers. I snack on a Klondike Bar which doesn’t help. This only makes me curse the dome. Humidity is 150% I’m sweating in reverse. No hydration necessary,A friend invites me over for a beer. We sit in the shade, sip an ice cold beer and our conversation drowns out the dome. I’m starting to feel cool in his shade-filled grotto with a south shore on coming breeze, I’ve beat the dome. And…I’ve saved the Earth