Autumn Whispers – Moon of Alabama

October 20, 2006

Autumn Whispers

by b real

bigger (190kb)

"The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; He knows that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too."
chief
luther standing bear

—

As regards an acceptable program for guiding our transition from our present situation to a more sustainable future, we can do very little without a truly valid and functional cosmology. We need above all a sense of the universe, how it functions, and our human role in the universe. The damage has been done largely because of our distorted cosmology.
…
The universe is primarily a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. Those of us who live in the
industrial world have become locked into ourselves, in the human process. We cannot relate to the outer world in any effective manner. We cannot get out, and the outer world cannot penetrate the human. We have lost our reverence, our sense of mystery, our sense of the sacred. We do not hear the voices — the voices of the surrounding world, the voices of the entire range of natural phenomena. The forests seems to be there primarily for exploitation. Any depth of human presence to the forests is relegated to marginal
persons, such as poets and painters, who are considered victimized by sentiment. The reality of the tree is simply its utility, its economic value. To accept that trees have rights to be what they are and that all living beings have rights to their habitat is the challenge.
from The Petrochemical Age by Thomas Berry

—

"Did you know that tree talk? Well, they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen. They never learned to listen to the Indian, so I don’t
suppose they’ll listen to other voices in nature."
tatanga
mani

Posted by b on October 20, 2006 at 16:36 UTC | Permalink

Comments

We really needed this today, b real. Thanks so much. It’s a gorgeous day here and the funk in the air left by the cowpie has been washed away by the wind and rain. Ahhhhh.

Posted by: beq | Oct 20 2006 16:53 utc | 1

heaven! beq, you took the ahhhh right out of my mouth. really, that’s what i thought.
thanks b real
thanks b too.
ok, i’ll say it again
AHHHHHH

Posted by: annie | Oct 20 2006 17:13 utc | 2

& i aussi b real & b

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 20 2006 17:23 utc | 3

Thank you for this.

Posted by: mats | Oct 20 2006 17:38 utc | 4

VERY NICE, very aesthetically pleasing, saw Kentucky writer and social activitst Wendell Berry talk last year, and for some reason, this peice (b reals work) popped it (berry’s talk) back into my head, something about being in the autumn of his life, and this:
The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~Wendell Berry
as per my norm, I always like to bring a little something extra to the party as well, hence:
All the Economics You Need to Know in One Lesson

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 20 2006 17:39 utc | 5

The text selection was also by b real, not by me. I collected some leafs today – abit sad that they end there lifes but they do it colorful.
So thanks to b real.
@Uncle – nice link too

Posted by: b | Oct 20 2006 18:01 utc | 6

Exquisite! Thank you.

Posted by: SME in Seattle | Oct 20 2006 19:11 utc | 7

Golden Brown

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 20 2006 20:30 utc | 8

that’s a purty picture.

Posted by: slothrop | Oct 20 2006 21:09 utc | 9

That’s beautiful. A treeful of memories for me who grew up in the foothills of the Appalachians, in a little town with red brick streets and slate sidewalks, shaded by giant sugar maples. If I dared to look up on a sunny day on October (those sidewalks were dangerous!) I saw your beautiful tree.
Marjie

Posted by: Marjie | Oct 20 2006 22:15 utc | 10

thanks all for the nice comments! and thanks b, for posting this.
there was an interesting/relevant speech by david korten, author of the book “when corporations rule the world”, on the national radio project‘s making contact program talking about the ideas in his latest book, the great turning.

The Great Turning is an essential resource for those who understand this need and are prepared to engage what Thomas Berry calls the Great Work. It cuts through the complexity of our time to illuminate a simple, but elegant truth. We humans live by stories. We are held captive to the ways of Empire by a cultural trance of our own creation maintained by stories that deny the higher possibilities of our human nature—including our capacities for compassion, cooperation, responsible self-direction, and self-organizing partnership.
Changing our future begins with changing our stories.

and there’s always derrick jensen‘s latest book, which will really getcha thinking
but make sure to get outside & enjoy this beautiful time of the year…

Posted by: b real | Oct 20 2006 23:30 utc | 11

uau!
so nice when one’s eye and one’s tools join together in such a pretty manner
que viva el otoño!

Posted by: rudolf | Oct 20 2006 23:37 utc | 12

This is so uplifting b real. And just what we need. More!

Posted by: beq | Oct 21 2006 0:21 utc | 13

Thank you, b real. Beautiful.
Recommended book on finding the sacred in the mundane:
Pine Island Paradox by Kathleen Dean Moore

Posted by: catlady | Oct 21 2006 0:30 utc | 14

a slow and dark lightning, with the sound of yellow orange thunder

Posted by: anna missed | Oct 21 2006 1:03 utc | 15

b real, thank you so very much for a bit of radiance in the darkness. b, thank you for posting it. i have been sneaking peeks at it all day while working, waiting to comment on it until home where i can reference a quote it brought to mind.
oren lyons, the faithkeeper of the turtle clan, onondaga council of chiefs of the hau de no sau nee (meaning people building a long house), is entrusted to maintain the customs, traditions, values and history of the turtle clan and uphold gai eneshah go’ nah, the great law of peace of the hau de no sau nee, while representing the people’s message from the hau de no sau nee to the world community. his words are included in the biodiversity exhibit at the museum of natural history in new york:

Take heed to the word of our grandfathers who instructed us to “Take care how you place your moccasins upon the earth . . . for the faces of future generations are looking up from the earth, waiting their turn for life.”

b real’s photograph brings me back to the essence of life and this important lesson, more critical now than ever.
it is almost like a mandela, b real, inspiring meditation.

Posted by: conchita | Oct 21 2006 3:37 utc | 16

uncle $cam, thanks too for the wendell berry.

Posted by: conchita | Oct 21 2006 3:56 utc | 17

“Did you know that tree talk? Well, they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if you listen.
i grew up in the redwoods. i don’t really know what i can possibly say..about them. this story i first read in the newyorker, speaks of the life in the canopies, societies live there. this is a small segment of the article

“Despite the difficulty of doing science in these trees, there’s always a moment during a climb when you can lose yourself,” he went on. “You perceive time more clearly in redwoods. You see time’s illusory qualities. When you get up into the crown of a redwood, you stop thinking about your life, you stop planning your future missions. You start feeling the limits of your perceptions of the world as a member of the human species. When you feel one of these trees moving, you get a sense of it as an individual.”
“Do you really think of this tree as a kind of entity?” I asked.
“It’s a being. It’s a ‘person,’ from a plant’s point of view. Plants are very different from animals, but they begin life with a sperm and an egg, the same way we do. This organism has stood on this spot for as many as two thousand years.
Trees can’t move, so they have to figure out how to deal with all of the things that can come and hurt them. This tree has burned at least once. The fire must have continued inside some of these caves for a long time – the caves were smoldering orange holes in the tree for weeks. Redwoods don’t care if they burn. After the fire, the tree went, ‘Wooaah,’ and it just grew back.”
The wind died, and the forest became silent. A fluting call came from the air near us. Sillett looked around. “Maybe a Swainson’s thrush.” He poked with his Leatherman at the electronics. “A tree is not conscious, the way we are, but a tree has a perfect memory. If you injure a tree, its cambium – its living wood – will respond, and the tree will grow differently in response to the injury. The trunk of a tree continually records everything that happens to it. But these trees have no voice. My life’s work is to speak for these trees.” He paused. “Dude, it’s getting dark It’s time to go down.”http://www.wesjones.com/climbing1.htm
“Did you know that tree talk? Well, they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if you listen.
“Despite the difficulty of doing science in these trees, there’s always a moment during a climb when you can lose yourself,” he went on. “You perceive time more clearly in redwoods. You see time’s illusory qualities. When you get up into the crown of a redwood, you stop thinking about your life, you stop planning your future missions. You start feeling the limits of your perceptions of the world as a member of the human species. When you feel one of these trees moving, you get a sense of it as an individual.”
“Do you really think of this tree as a kind of entity?” I asked.
“It’s a being. It’s a ‘person,’ from a plant’s point of view. Plants are very different from animals, but they begin life with a sperm and an egg, the same way we do. This organism has stood on this spot for as many as two thousand years.
From the moment he entered redwood space, Steve Sillett began to see things that no one had imagined. The general opinion among biologists at the time – this was just eight years ago – was that the redwood canopy was a so-called “redwood desert” that contained not much more than the branches of redwood trees. Instead, Sillett discovered a lost world above Northern California.
The old-growth redwood-forest canopy, Sillett found, is packed with epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants. They commonly occur on trees in tropical rain forests, but nobody really expected to find them in profusion in Northern California. There are hanging gardens of ferns, in masses that Sillett calls fern mats. The fern mats can weigh tons when they are saturated with rainwater; they are the heaviest masses of epiphytes which have been found in any forest canopy on earth. Layers of earth, called canopy soil, accumulate over the centuries on wide limbs and in the tree’s crotches – in places where trunks spring from trunks – and support a variety of animal and plant life. In the crown of a giant redwood named Fangorn, Sillett found a layer of canopy soil that is three feet deep. Near the top of Laurelin, or the Tree of the Sun, which is three hundred and sixty-eight feet tall and still growing, Sillett found a huge, sheared-off trunk with a rotted, damp center. Masses of shrubs are growing out of the wet rot, sending their roots down into Laurelin.
Sillett and his students have found small, pink earthworms of an unidentified species in the beds of soil in the redwoods. A Humboldt colleague of Sillett’s named Michael A. Camann has collected aquatic crustaceans called copepods living in the fern mats. The scientists have not yet been able to determine the copepods’ species. Sillett said, “They commonly dwell in the gravel in streams around here.” He can’t explain how they got into the redwood canopy. A former graduate student of Sillett’s named James C. Spickler has been studying wandering salamanders in the redwood canopy. The wandering salamander is brown and gold, and it feeds on insects, mainly at night. Spickler found that the salamanders were breeding in the redwood canopy, which suggests that they never visit the ground – this population of salamanders appears to live its entire life cycle in the redwood canopy.
Old redwood trees are infested with thickets of huckleberry bushes. In the fall, Sillett and his colleagues stop and rest inside huckleberry thickets, hundreds of feet above the ground, and gorge on the berries. He and his students have also taken censuses of other shrubs growing in the redwood canopy: currant bushes, elderberry bushes, and salmonberry bushes, which occasionally put out fruit, too. Sillett has discovered small trees – wild bonsai – in the canopy. The species include California bay laurel trees, western hemlocks, Douglas firs, and tan oaks. Sillett once found an eight-foot Sitka spruce growing on the limb of a giant redwood.

Posted by: annie | Oct 21 2006 4:53 utc | 18

thanks for the book link, catlady. looks like a great place to drop a kayak in.
beq – i do have many more, but should probably spread them out over time
nice quote, conchita.
Be of strong mind, O chiefs!
Carry no anger and hold no grudges.
Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs
nor of your own generation.
Think of continuing generations of our families
think of our grandchildren
and of those yet unborn,
whose faces are coming from beneath the ground
— the peacemaker, circa 1000
thank you for bringing up the haudenosaunee b/c it reveals to me another set of connections that i didn’t see b/t the photo and the accompanying text/thoughts/ideas that i initially associated w/ it. the peacemaker’s vision of the great tree of peace (although it was a white pine & not a radiant maple) led him to work out a set of principles dedicated to establishing peace on earth.

He argued not for the establishment of law and order, but for the full establishment of peace. Peace was to be defined not as the simple absence of war or strife, but as the active striving of humans for the purpose of establishing universal justice. Peace was defined as the product of a society which strives to establish concepts which correlate to the English words Power, Reason and Righteousness.
“Righteousness” refers to something akin to the shared ideology of the people using their purest and most unselfish minds. It occurs when the people put their minds and emotions in harmony withthe flow of the universe and the intentions of the Good Mind or the Great Creator. The principles of Righteousness demand that all thoughts of prejudice, privilege or superiority be swept away and that recognition be given to the reality that the creation is intended for the benefit of all equally — even the birds and animals, the trees and the insects, as well as the humans.
…
“Reason” is perceived to be the power of the human mind to make righteous decisions about complicated issues. The Peacemaker began his teachings based on the principle that human beings were given the gift of the power of Reason in order that they may settle their differences with the use of force. He proposed that in every instance humans should use every effort to counsel about, arbitrate and negotiate their differences, and that force should be resorted to only as a defense against the certain use of force. All men [sic] whose minds are healthy can desire peace, he taught, and there is an ability within all human beings, and especially the young human beings, to grasp and hold strongly to the principles of Righteousness. The ability to grasp the principles of Righteousness is a spark within the individual which society must fan and nurture that it may grow. Reason is seen as the skill which humans must be encouraged to acquire in order that the objectives of peace may be attained and no one’s rights abused.
…
The Power to enact a true Peace is the product of a unified people on the path of Righteousness and Reason — the ability to enact the principles of Peace through education, public opinion and political and, when necessary, military unity. The “Power” that the Peacemaker spoke of was intended to enable the followers of the law to call upon warring or quarelling parties to lay down their arms and to begin peaceful settlement of their disputes. Peace, as the Peacemaker understood it, flourished only in a garden amply fertilized with absolute and pure justice. It was the product of a spiritually conscious society using its abilities at reason which resulted in a healty society.
…
But it was power in all senses of the word — the power of persuasion and reason, the power of the inherent good will of humans, the power of a dedicated and united people, and when all else failed, the power of force. [from basic call to consciousness]

the peacemaker integrated these principles w/i a concept of natural law establishing “the great law” w/ which he united the confederacy of the five nations under the protection of the great tree of peace.

The white roots of the Great Tree of Peace will continue to grow,” the founder allegedly announced, “advancing the Good Mind and Righteousness and Peace, moving into territories of peoples scattered far through the forest. And when a nation, guided by the Great White Roots, shall approach the Tree, you shall welcome her here and take her by the arm and seat her in the place of council. She will add a brace or leaning pole to the longhouse and will thus strengthen the edifice of Reason and Peace.”
— from the death and rebirth of the seneca, by anthony f.c. wallace

the haudenosaunee were the original united nations and some of the practices passed down from the peacemaker even made their way into the united states constitution, as the deists, esp ben franklin, were very impressed by the six nations governance.
The messenger expressed a lot in the way of instruction. He instructed the leaders on the process and procedure. He warned us about certain things. He prepared the leaders for things that we wouldn’t understand at the moment they occurred but would become clear as we became more experienced.
What he actually said was, “You must have skin seven spans thick, like seven spans of a tree, to withstand the abuse that you are going to receive in your position. You must be tolerant and must not respond in kind, but you must understand and be prepared to absorb all of that because it is not going to be coming from your enemies, it is going to be coming from your friends and your families. This you can expect.”
— chief oren lyons, a seat at the table
and, finally, two from the late chief leon shenandoah
Sooner or later we will all remember to do the duties we were instructed to do. Sooner is better. Later brings the suffering that will cause us to remember the Creator. The decision as to when it will be is always up to each person. In the end everybody will be doing the same thing, and that is remembering…
– – –
You will see many tears in this country. Then a great wind will come, a wind that will make a hurricane seem like a whisper. It will cleanse the earth and return it to its original state.

Posted by: b real | Oct 21 2006 6:27 utc | 19

argh! correction to above
The Peacemaker began his teachings based on the principle that human beings were given the gift of the power of Reason in order that they may settle their differences without the use of force
nice link, annie. thanks.

Posted by: b real | Oct 21 2006 6:36 utc | 20

the parse of the article @18 starts by talking of doing science in the trees, but the author (of article not post) has most certainly given it, rather disingenously imho, a mystical slant.
It appears that this Sillett fellow is the first to bother to see what’s up there, rather than unimaginatively making grand pronouncements from afar like the Greeks never bothering to climb Olympus to say hi to the pantheon.
Biologists may have considered the redwood canopy a desert, but I think it is the belief of the author that it would be devoid of life. I can’t see any biologist worth their salt thinking deserts are empty.
If Sillett is the first to explore that ecosystem, he will obviously run across species we can’t identify as we find new species all the time. Even some old ones – coelacanth
The author describes epiphytes and copepods, little pink worms and other things as if they shouldn’t exist up in that ecosystem. The author claims the scientist can’t explain how they got there (he isn’t quoted, we are told).
Really?
Epiphytes are ANY plants living on another plant. I live far from the tropics but I have them in my backyard. The article implies they are tropical and atypical of redwood regions.
In Europe there are no dedicated epiphytes using roots, although grass, small bushes or small trees may grow on the branches of other plants. (from Wiki)
In something as large as a redwood, an eight foot tree is small.
Speaking of small, copepods average 1-2mm in size, with the largest reaching 1cm. They also like moisture of which the Pacific coast has no lack.
How did these all these creatures end up up there? Like all others found in such seemingly remote locations, they were carried aloft by other creatures or the wind (or the sea, but not likely in this case).
While the article fits in with the tone of this thread, it isn’t very honest with its playing fast and loose with facts.
Lovely photo. I like Fall, but not what it portends – raking.

Posted by: gmac | Oct 21 2006 13:18 utc | 21

I keep coming back to this thread. Can’t stay away. All the text and links are nourishing. In my yard are five oaks that you can’t put your arms around. I’ve been so dismayed this summer to see my neighbors taking down similar huge healthy trees. For what? They’ve been there longer than we have and would have been there long after we’ve gone. It seemed like an epidemic of some kind. A sickness. For what? Greener grass? To keep a pickup truck from being dented? So as not to rake leaves?
I love raking leaves up to the point that I become overwhelmed but I would never willingly give up my trees.
The native American references have sent me to my bookshelves to mine a bit. If any of you are ever in my hometown, don’t miss the the Native American museum You’ll never forget it.
Thanks again, b real.
(I love this place)

Posted by: beq | Oct 21 2006 14:16 utc | 22

in re my link: Being the new one in d.c. that is.

Posted by: beq | Oct 21 2006 14:24 utc | 23

b real, thanks for going deeper into oren lyons and the haudenosaune. this is a sweeping statement i am about to make and one i am not prepared to back up, so it is more a sentiment than a thesis i intend to fully support. but lyons thoughts almost seem buddhist, shinto, or even kantian. also included in the museum of natural history exhibit is a kenyan proverb:

treat the earth well. it was not given to you by your parents. it was loaned to you by your children.

it also brings me to a discussion we had here a few months ago where r’giap made a statement about how important it is that we are organic and how we have become separated from the earth around us. i wish i could remember which thread it was because it connected these thoughts to politics on another level, but perhaps if he is reading he will recall and share his thoughts again. but it seems it is from this connectedness and respect for and appreciation that the righteousness of which lyons speaks springs. in our process as a “civilisation” we have lost that and must relearn it.
before heading out on a sunny but cool saturday, i will share one more from wallace stegner because this is what your photo and thoughts translate to for me:

wilderness can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.

as they say on the big island of hawai’i, where i learned enduring respect for the forces of nature – by virtue of the ocean pounding the shores around you, the butterflies, plentiful mangoes, papayas, lilikoi, more shades and textures of green imaginable, and the daily gift of liquid (rain) and regular sunshine – t’anks eh.

Posted by: conchita | Oct 21 2006 14:52 utc | 24

One gallon of gas (as used in a combustion engine) is roughly equivalent to 120 hours of hard physical work by a fit man. (Pimentel).
One can often read a number of hours such as 500 – that is without the various losses due a typical combustion engine machine, e.g. car, and probably a less fit man doing something rather mild, or some calculation of what the average human M and F adult can accomplish, or does routinely do.
The minutes of work required to buy a gallon of gas (average pay, US) has teetered since 1950 between 12 and 6. Right now it is pretty high. (the nos. are only indicative, i pulled them off the net)
Gas – or liquid fuels – are free energy. What is paid at the pump is paid to the extractors, the shippers, the transporters, the refiners, the retail.
Each of us in the West has between 10 and 130 (very? conservative estimate..) free slaves working for us each day, tirelessly, day after day, without food, health insurance, or complaint. In the Congo, that number is: 0. And that is just in the infrastructure as it is now, in a steady state, where the creation of buildings, highways, malls, planes, tankers, heating pipes and so on, are not accounted for.
It is not a new cosmology we need, but a new accounting system. Any new system would immediately provide a new perspective, a different relation between man and the physical world. (It would also crash the world economy.) Today’s poets and painters, those sensitive souls (thanks for the great pic b) can show us an alert us to the beauty and interconnectedness of nature. ‘Primitive’ people lived in harmony with their surroundings as they were incapable of exploiting it to the hilt, and so stayed modest, small – in their ambitions and populations – respectful and in awe of the forces that shaped their world, and pleased with their insertion in it, or minor management of it.
The average growth of population from ? 20.000 BC to 1800 was .05 (point oh five)

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 21 2006 15:19 utc | 25

very pretty
not to bring the whole thing down, but how is autumn where you are? here in the uk, it’s actually kind of spring-like, the plants are growing like crazy, even a magnolia reportedly flowering according to newspaper today, the red flowers on back on the runner beans in the back yard of the house i’m writing in tonight – and the leaves are still pretty much on the trees
i know plants are extremely sensitive to temperature, are birds the same? i do not know if the birds are going to migrate under these conditions – it could be too warm for them to realise how late in the year it is – are they guided by temperatures in making the decision when to go south?

Posted by: Dismal Science | Oct 21 2006 22:24 utc | 26

I have roses blooming here in the Pacific Northwest. In October.
Only lived here a few years so I don’t know … but the geese and ducks are still forming up each year, I don’t know where they’re going but it is great fun to watch them practise flying in their flocks over the water.
Seems clear that the change in animal and plant populations is going to be huge.

Posted by: jonku | Oct 22 2006 8:19 utc | 27

I realized that it is autumn today. The color is before peak but not far away. Beautiful. The sugar maples are finest and first. I was sitting outside with a sweater and noticed that the dogs were cold and wanted to go inside. I saw a few small flights of Canada geese flying north? [local guys] I haven’t seen the huge flocks up high flying south yet.

Posted by: beq | Oct 22 2006 23:31 utc | 28

uncle- got a chance to read that yates article over the w/e. very good & relevant, thanks. followed some of his travelogues as they were published at MR, and will have to check out his book. enjoyed his previous one, naming the system.
beq- people around here have been cutting down trees quite a bit after a massive storm (90mph winds) that we had on july 19, which knocked out power in thousands of homes for more than a week, right during the middle of a 100f+ heat wave. initially, more than a million electric co customers lost all their power as trees were downed everywhere, snapping wires left & right. the park where the photo was taken lost over 200 trees that day. it was quite a sight, huge trees knocked right over at ground level, others snapped off 5-10 feet up the trunk. and branches, huge and small, scattered all over the place. along w/ the cleanup, for which the national guard was brought in, trees that were seen as portending further security risks — anywhere close to wires or perhaps if they just looked old or diseased (or sinister?) — were also cut down or severely amputated. a slaughter on top of a massacre. a lot of it was overreacting & unnecessary. i was surprised, though, upon examining many of the trees that were bowled over, how many of them lacked any sizeable taproot. such is the story of trees in urban settings, i suppose.
dismal- some of our flowers have bloomed twice this year & i’ve had a family member tell me of plants on their third bloom this year. i think there are different triggers for migratory behaviors, some following food & flora, seasonal indicators and such, others programmed w/ a biological clock, etc. haven’t been out to the wildlife refuges since early sept so i have no idea what the scene is this year, though i have been wondering how their affected by all of this climate change as well.

Posted by: b real | Oct 23 2006 15:05 utc | 29

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