The Mindful Hiker

A Theory of Diminishing Consumption

Stephen Altschuler — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:56:05 +0000

I have observed that as the content of ordinary things reduces so does our consumption of those things. Clearly, except for many of the 1%, it holds as the jelly or nut butter get closer to the bottom of the jar, and as the ice cream nears the bottom of the container. But what interrupts that process is almost complete denial that some things–things we can’t readily see or notice–are diminishing, like fossil fuel, and clean air, and potable water, and the ozone layer, and ice at the north and south poles, and fish. This unwillingness to face reality has led to a plethora of problems of which we are all aware but many do not want to make the hard choices to find sustainable solutions. So we continue to use resources unabated, even when the planet shows obvious signs of abuse and degradation. Reactionary elements disdain scientific evidence and extoll folklore and fundamentalist religion. For example, in Louisiana, schools are required to present an alternative theory of evolution which asserts that 5,700 years ago an aging deity created the heavens and earth and all life on it in six days. Eventually, God didn’t like his handiwork and sent a flood to drown everyone except 600-year old Noah and his family and two of every species on Earth, including microbes. Somehow, Noah forgot the dinosaurs…

Yes, it’s true. They really are required to state all this in Louisiana’s schools, giving it equal billing to evolutionary theory, which is based on everything we know about biology. This is a very weird country indeed. Believers in this theory are called Young Earth Creationists (YEC), and according to Wikipedia, “Between 40 and 50% of adults in the United States say they believe in YEC, depending on the poll. According to a Gallup Poll in December 2010, around 40% of Americans believe in YEC, with 52% among Republicans and 34% among Democrats. The percentage falls quickly as the level of education increases—only 22% of respondents with postgraduate degrees believed compared with 47% of those with a high school education or less.” That’s right: Forty to fifty percent of all Americans believe in this hogwash. And this country is supposed to be leading the way towards environmental sanity.

Actually the most alarming figure is that 22% of people with masters and doctoral degrees believe in the creationist delusions. I have a masters degree and let me tell you, you’d have to practice some mighty powerful denial to believe that crap after all the education to the contrary. My conclusion? Never take the opinions of those with higher education at face value. Always end a conversation with one of them with the simple question: Oh, by the way, how old is Earth? This is also a good question to ask all the Republican Presidential contenders before you decide to vote for them. Barack Obama’s answer will be 4.2 billion years, which, along with ridding the world of Osama bin Laden and others of his ilk, should get him re-elected. Oh yes, he also prevented a Great Depression, the cause of which was George W. Bush.

But perhaps my theory of Diminishing Consumption is taking hold after all. Witness the demise of the Hummer. Witness the rise of the hybrid and all electric vehicles. Witness the increase in solar installations. Witness the increase in the price of gasoline. Witness the increase in air and water quality. Witness the first wolf in a century to enter California. True, the polar bear is under siege. True, an outlandish pipeline shipping oil tar sands from Canada to Texas is on the verge of acceptance. True, mountain tops are still being leveled in West Virginia. And glaciers the world over are receding at an alarming rate. But as global warming proceeds and Earth’s resources near the bottom of the jar, people are looking for sustainable ways to live on this planet. Ten years ago, the very word “sustainable” was barely in the English lexicon.

So at the start of the year 2012, there is hope. There is awareness. There is consciousness. And yes, to some degree, there is diminishing consumption. The big question is will we have the intelligence, determination, and the political and social will to have the wisdom and make the sacrifices needed to save this precious planet of ours?

I wish you all a happy and sustainable New Year.

The Golden Rule

Stephen Altschuler — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:10:02 +0000

I am struggling with my second cold in as many months, and I am not a happy camper. It is beautiful outside, yet my energy level comes nowhere near the elemental energies calling me. The time has just changed and with it the functional arising of fall. The leaves are braced against the cinnamon dusk sky, full of clouds that hold the remaining light of the day as if were an infant pressed against its mother’s bosom. There was an early morning rain that doused the trees and brush by our creek, Brush Creek, leaving a moist patina on the pathway we now walk. A quick twenty minutes at day’s end, we agree to. Despite my cold I march along trying to match Ruth’s pace. My body sweats, a good thing, but, of course, I worry about worsening my illness. Chalk it up to my Jewish upbringing when the matriarchs would feel my head with their head or their hand, pronouncing me well, or, more often, feverish. Oi vey, and it’s off to bed with me, too sick to play, yet not sick enough to watch TV. I would miss school, yes, but what good was it? I couldn’t go out and join my friends. The good old days? No. These, this day, is much better. Even with a cold I could go out and play.

The trees in the neighborhood were in fabulous fall array, even now in December. On the east coast, they’d be brown by now, beaten down by cold and storm and wind, stripped of their party dresses, and made all muddy by November and her nasty manners. There was no salvation in this month, no gentleness, no subtlety to its harsh message: Winter is nigh. Stock the shelves. Gather wood. Chop it and stack. Dig out the shovels and hats and gloves and boots. Clean the chimney.

In the coastal plains of California, December is more a beauty in her 60s, like the blushing rose of my wife’s cheek rather than in New England, the pasty shriek of a crone. Oh, give me California any day, where my soul can spread out like the Mayten tree whose leaves hang like cormorant wings in the breeze. Oh, give me California where the ocean stretches out like a silver bedspread, bejeweled and bedecked with the creases and crevices of a master quilt. Oh, give me California where a human being can be outside just about every day, facing the elements not with fear but with anticipation. Oh, give me California where the great Redwood stands as living history for all to touch and feel and learn from.

It is Christmas Day. The sun is bright and constant. The temperature is rising. The world is warming, I know, but on this day I take respite in considering that bleak fact. I reflect back to a year of pain and facing the pain, to a year of fear and facing the fear, to a year of beginning to see a world of injustice unravel in protest that collectively said. “We want freedom.”

I think of the one law which will change this world now and forever: the one law which will change the way human beings relate to their world with justice, compassion, freedom, wisdom, consciousness, and love. That law is simply this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Nothing else is needed. Others include the planet itself, animal, vegetable, and mineral. The Golden Rule is the only law we need to heal this Earth we all share. The practice of that rule would bring about a revolution in consciousness on personal and national levels. We need that revolution desperately.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah on this Sunday in December 2011. May you all live in peace and kindness, love and consciousness, care and consideration of others.

River of Life

Stephen Altschuler — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:57:37 +0000

From the air, of all the features on the ground, it is the river we see first. Not roads or ranches or restaurants, but the river, wild and snaking along gravity’s lowest flow. We often lose sight of the river when we travel on the ground. Roads bully their way through the shortest route between two points. You miss much of the river so you have to get out of the car to really see it, to touch it, and feel its bank with your feet. The essence of the river cannot be glimpsed: It must be experienced, first hand, first foot, first eye, first soul, first spirit. You must speak with the river as you would a friend, face-to-face, belly-to-belly. You cannot email the river.

Ideally, you must float on the river as the ancients did the Petaluma: in Tule reed boats and rafts. Every day, they rode the river and felt its silky surface, studied its ways, and knew its every inhabitant and plant. The villager didn’t ask the fisherman, “How was the river today?” There was no need to ask such a question. The answer lay near the surface of her consciousness. She knew the answer as she knew how to breathe. She knew the answer as she knew when spring had arrived. She knew the answer as she knew the nape of her husband’s neck. The river was a source of their sustenance—full, clean, cold, ripe. The fish he offered for dinner were a blessing from the earth, from the abundant waters.

After the Native Americans were gone, the Petaluma River became, for years, almost solely an avenue for commerce. But now, local people see it again for what it is: a river of life and spirit that needs to be seen, needs to be experienced, needs to be treasured and loved.

Our Walking Ancestors

Stephen Altschuler — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:01:04 +0000

The latest research shows that one of the earliest ancestors of humans descended from trees and walked upright. A foot bone, some 3 million years old was found that indicates this ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, had feet similar to modern human beings. The bone was discovered in Ethiopia, and even predates Lucy, her footprint and bones showing that our early ancestors came down from the trees and walked upright. No foot bones were found with Lucy’s fossils though, which left a gaping hole in the history of walking and how it defined humanness. Now scientists know that Lucy and her ancestors “were fully humanlike and committed to life on the ground,” said Carol Ward, a professor of integrative anatomy at the University of Missouri, who was part of the team that discovered the fossil. The foot bone shows their feet were arched distinguishing them from apes whose feet are flexible to be able to live in trees.”Now that we know Lucy and her relatives had arches in their feet, this affects much of what we know about them, from where they lived to what they ate and how they avoided predators.” The development of arched feet, Dr. Ward continued in an interview with the Associated Press, “was a fundamental shift toward the human condition, because it gives you the ability to use the big toe for grasping branches, signaling that our ancestors had finally abandoned life in the trees in favor of life on the ground.”

Walking then was the first characteristic to define what it means to be human, something you may want to reflect upon the next you’re out for a walk. There was a first step, which you can experience with your first step of the day. That takes awareness and a mind willing to pay attention to the details of life. It takes “Beginner’s Mind”, that mind before thinking, that helps us remember the simplest yet most profound activity of walking. Otherwise, before we know it, we’re in the car performing yet another activity that separates us from Earth itself–an activity that could be construed as non-human.

For me, walking is a way to balance out from an all too hectic life that requires far too much mental calisthenics to navigate the rough waters all around us. Like yesterday. I went out to a trail above the ocean that I hadn’t been to in months. Work and responsibility had muscled their way to the front of the line, leaving walking in natural places a distant second. I was feeling the effects of walking deprivation, a condition particularly prevalent in the industrialized world. So that which set us on the path to humanness is falling to the onslaught of our technological and engineering genius. Not to say that genius is wrong or misdirected. It’s truly wonderful. But too much of a good thing is not a good thing. That leads to addiction, a condition that deteriorates our status in the animal kingdom. For when we get sucked into the vortex of technology, then technology becomes our master and we its slave.

So go out and take a walk today, without talking on the cell or using GPS, without MP3, without camera. Just experience your humanness, one step at a time.

I’m Just Saying…

Stephen Altschuler — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:18:49 +0000

So, if we need jobs and people don’t have the money to buy things or services, then why would a company, restaurant, computer firm , create jobs? If the demand is not there, then there is no incentive to create jobs. Now the government needs money to create jobs, fix bridges, build roads, protect it’s citizens, so it makes sense to raise some taxes to pay for these things. But the people are like adolescents saying I want this and that, and Oh, don’t take away that, no not that, but don’t want to pay for that and this that they can’t do without. So the Tea Party people say cut, cut, and cut some more, until we have no basic protections ala police and fire, social security and Medicare, homeland security, regulatory agencies to protect us against E coli and smokestacks and stuff. They don’t even want crazy subsidies or loopholes cut for fear it’ll look like a tax increase even though it brings in much needed income to government coffers from people or companies who can afford it. Even Warren Buffett said his income tax rate is less than his secretary’s! They want “small” government to leave them alone until they want or need something like FEMA, for example, and then want government to come in and fix it without any resources or manpower to do so. Are you following me so far?

Now as a mental health professional for the past 40 years, I would diagnose this as a country suffering from borderline personality disorder. It’s teetering on the borderline of psychosis and neurosis, and can be a real pain in the ass at times. Manipulative. Contrary. Demanding. Irrational. Even suicidal, but only to get attention. Hard to have a conversation with because some of us know they’re right even though they know their ideas have been wrong in the past, like small government and trickle down economics that didn’t work in the 20^th century and are more wrong in the 21^st.

The answer then, as the economy continues to feebly recover, is for everyone to share the burden and raise one of the lowest tax rates in the world to a level that will help us increase production and create jobs to do so. It’s the only reason a business will take the chance and create jobs: to increase production to meet increased demand. It’s not that difficult. We can do this, but only if we agree to increased taxes and fees in this time of economic world war. And not to worry: It’s not permanent. When the engines of industry get rolling again and jobs are abundant, taxes and fees can be lowered to more palatable rates. Or a whole new tax code can be developed, much fairer and efficient than the current one. Retired Republican Senator Alan Simpson, from conservative Wyoming, said just this the other day.

So let’s grow up, America. We’ve bitten the bullet before and we need to it again. Shame on Tea Party legislators for their adolescent (almost unpatriotic) ways.

And what about the environment? Are we facing reality? Have we acknowledged that the planet, our home planet, is on the verge of collapse? Can we not see the polar ice cap melting? Can we not see Antarctica ice shelves cracking and raising sea levels around the world? Can we not see the disappearance of food fish, other marine life, and the trashing of our life-giving oceans? Can we not see glaciers disappearing in a matter of 50 years? Can we not see the effects of using fossil fuels? And what are we doing about these and other threats to Planet Earth? How about spending millions on NASA’s Killer Asteroid Project? Sorry, but we’re already killing the planet with our addictive ways and ignorant decisions. Other more advanced civilizations light years away must be shocked by our primitive approach to living on this precious planet.

Again, grow up, America, and do what needs to be done. With guts and brains and heart and soul, we can be an shining example for the rest of the world, as perhaps our Founders intended. Happy Fourth!

2010 in review

Stephen Altschuler — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:48:01 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 14 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 139 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 66mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 1st with 79 views. The most popular post that day was Climb the Mountains.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mindfulhiker.com, digg.com, mail.live.com, terapiafloralevolutiva.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for woman on beach, armstrong redwoods california, guerneville ca pictures, armstrong woods, and guerneville ca walks.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Climb the Mountains March 2010
2 comments

Where I Walk January 2010
1 comment

Of Bears and Salmon and Lake Tahoe October 2010
8 comments

About January 2010

The Healing Power of Nature June 2010
2 comments

A New Year’s Message…and Plea

Stephen Altschuler — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:14:14 +0000

Latest research shows that present day humans are between one and four percent Neanderthal. Seems like there was some interbreeding going on in the Middle East between very early (Neanderthal) and later (Cro-Magnon) beings moving out of Africa, a critical fact recently uncovered. I say beings because these species were not fully human, in that their consciousness was not fully developed. They lacked traits that make us human, like compassion, empathy, emotinal sensitivity, love, cognitive reasoning, understanding, and a full language set. Early theories had Neanderthals going extinct before there was any contact with Cro-Magnons. That means since Cro-Magnons were a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens sapiens (that’s us), we have some Neanderthal in our gene pool. The Neanderthal was a brutish, muscular fellow, with little or no language, who resorted to cannibalism and stripping the skin off the nearby dead, who lived in caves and hunted the mammoth with very sharp stone spears. He had fire, and could control it to a degree, and there is limited evidence that he lived within nuclear families. His lifespan was about 30 years. His torso was that of a present-day weight lifter, with powerful arms that hung down close to his kness. He was a dull witted fellow but there is evidence that he traded with others. And now we think that he interbred with genetically more advanced species in the Middle East before the Neanderthals went west to Europe and another group east to Asia. So to have Neanderthal genes might explain a certain coarseness, a certain predatory instinct, and a lack of communication and consciousness in some present day humans. The Buddha lumped together these characteristics as greed, hatred, and delusion, which may have set us up for global warming, pollution, deforestation, and nuclear armaments. In the past, it may account, from my perspective, for a whole litany of characters like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Charles Taylor, and Jim Jones. It may be a factor in gang behavior, bullying and gay bashing, domestic violence, rape and incest, violent crime, and even white collar crime.

The Neanderthal mind is concerned primarily with itself, its survival, and perhaps the survival of its immediate family. Presumably,it has no moral code, no ethics, no consideration for the rights of others and the planet as a whole. Jean Auel, in Clan of the Cave Bear, surmises that the Neanderthal did not link sex with procreation, since the results of sexual contact did not appear until nine months later. The man gave any woman a signal, she agreeably squatted, and he relieved himself any time the mood hit. We still see this today in any number of abominable forms. Self absorption is perhaps the one trait of human beings that most hinders our evolution to a higher consciousness, to a world without war, to a world of sustained cooperation and sensitivity to the rights of others, to a world of compromise and understanding and compassion.

We all have some Neanderthal in us–more or less. We could all do more to combat global warming, for example. We could all do more to protect the environment. We could all do more to end poverty and homelessness. We could all be more mindful, more conscious, more compassionate, more helpful, less judgmental, less impulsive, more patient, less reactive, more thoughtful, more proactive, more cooperative, more loving, more willing to sacrifice, more honorable, less greedy, more tolerant, more inclusive, more humorous, more considerate.

The Neanderthal acts without considering the effects of his actions. His brain is of a wide mesh that filters little before messages are sent to the body to act. We’ve seen his genes at work in the sexual crimes of Catholic priests, in Bill Clinton’s romps in the Oval Office, Tiger Woods’ indescretions, and the blunders of John Edwards, Elliot Spitzer, John Ensign, and Larry Craig. We’ve seen his genes in the burning of Amazonian and Indonesian rain forests, the demise of the polar bear and the wolf, the burning of fossil fuels and the lack of a thoughtful approach to energy alternatives. The Neanderthal thinks nothing of driving a big car and leaving the engine running as he watches a beautiful sunset. The Neanderthal eats large quantities of meat, not knowing how the animal was raised or what it was fed. The Neanderthal recycles little since recycling requires consideration for the Earth and all its inhabitants other than himself. The Neanderthal mind is far from an enlightened mind.

So human evolution continues. Unfortunately, the planet is in near, irreversible ruin. Neanderthals did ultimately go extinct. Will Homo sapiens follow them? Will another human species evolve that will be better adapted than us to the challenges and sacrifices of living on Earth in sustainable ways? It is theorized that Cro-Magnon, with his more developed and adaptable brain, was responsible for the Neanderthal demise. Will the same be true for Homo sapiens sapiens who, for the past ten thousand years, has not done a very sustainable job of it?

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. But most of all I wish you a mindful, compassionate, considerate, accepting, loving, helpful, thoughtful, and kind New Year, where you care not only for your own needs but the needs of Earth and all its inhabitants.

Of Bears and Salmon and Lake Tahoe

Stephen Altschuler — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:39:04 +0000

Did you know that landlocked Kokanee salmon spawn up a creek at Lake Tahoe after spending most of their lives feeding in the freshwater lake? I didn’t until we happened upon a crowd we thought had stopped to see the bright October foliage. Below us the creek was red with salmon, vying for spawning ground, some within an arms reach away. And a short way up the creek was a cinnamon colored black bear gorging herself on the fish (a fairly rare occurence since these bears are mostly vegetarians), while her cub hid in the brush, somewhat afraid of all the human activity near her mama. It was one of those wildlife events that make living in northern California the pleasure, and often adventure, that it is. This was not something seen on the web or an iPhone app or a PBS special, all a few steps removed from the real thing. We were actually there, taking it all in with our own eyes. And the crowd was courteous and helpful, with some offering information about the fish and the bear and their habits. Before long the sated bear ambled upstream, perhaps for a nap and to search for that rascal cub, and the crowd moved on, the main attraction over for the time being.

It was great to see people stop to view this spectacle of nature, this graphic scene of integrated life cycles unfolding in its elegance and rawness. These salmon were accidentally introduced in 1944 so they are relatively new to the eco-system, but they like the arrangement very much. Their numbers are stable, kept in check by active wildlife management by the Department of Fish and Game. The species remain healthy as a result of keeping numbers at a sustainable level. The DFG also operates hatcheries, stocking mountain lakes throughout California with Kokanee salmon, a very tasty game fish. Here at Tahoe, the fish only use one creek, Taylor Creek, to spawn during October each year. The sight (and smell of dead fish) is over-powering, with fish filling the creek bank to bank. And like their Sockeye brothers and sisters to the north, they die after laying their eggs, their life mission complete after their fling in the great alpine lake. You can even see the fish underwater in the creek itself, thanks to a viewing room built by the Forest Service at their visitor center. I’ve never seen anything quite like it as fish approach and try to jump past a natural dam on their epic journey upstream. One little boy shouted “Wow!” when he first entered, which was pretty great seeing something other than a video game excite him.

The rest of our Tahoe trip was filled with aspens turning yellow and orange in the bracing fall air and the bright, sharp light of early fall in the Sierras. At Paige Meadows near Tahoe City, a golden eagle soared on the currents. And at Emerald Bay we sat on rocks and watched a paddlewheeler tour boat move at 19th century speed on water so green it matched the forest around it. We hiked up to Angora Lakes above the destructive fire of a few years ago, now part of a ghostly landscape of tombstone trees and patches of green shoots starting its natural process of reclamation. Tahoe is filled with elemental energy, which is why it attracts us so. It is developed, yes, but nature still reigns supreme.

Today we hiked up past Eagle Falls to Eagle Lake, a gem in a setting of granite, a repeat of the first hike Ruth and I took after we eloped to Tahoe ten years ago. The day was clear and cool and bright with fall colors. No eagles but many people lined the trail–friendly, Hi-Line people who offered many hellos, some even stopping to chat. Our species is much maligned around denigrating nature but most of us are quiet and respectful. Throughout our hiking adventures at Tahoe, I’ve seen little to no litter, a sign of the love people feel for this place. Unfortunately the minority who do the wrong thing get most of the press. This is my small effort to counter that.

Still, there is some trouble in paradise. In the late 1960s UC Davis researchers started measuring the lake’s clarity throughout the year by lowering a white Secchi disk, named after its inventor, Italian scientist Angelo Secchi, at two fixed locations. The depth at which the disk, the size of a dinner plate, disappears from sight is referred to as the Secchi depth, a measurement of clarity. Back then the depth was about 100 feet. Today, they use the same method and the Secchi depth is only about 70 feet. That’s a problem and the reason for the Keep Tahoe Blue bumper stickers. Pollution, mainly from old septic systems, does enter this amazing alpine lake, with only one outlet, the Truckee River, to flush it clean. It’s a pity it wasn’t originally declared a National Park, but so be it. It is what it is, and what it is a place where people and nature co-exist in relative harmony. Let’s show the world how possible and beautiful that can be.

Fair winds and happy trails.

______________________________

Some of our favorite places in and around West Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City:

Granlibakkan Resort and Conference Center

Tahoe House Bakery and Cafe

New Moon Natural Foods

Evergreen Restaurant

Sugar Pine Point State Park

Blackwood Canyon

Emerald Bay

Eagle Falls and Eagle Lake Trails

Paige Meadows

Commons Beach at Tahoe City at sunset

Whales and Other Miracles

Stephen Altschuler — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:17:50 +0000

I was watching whales from my perch at Bodega Head the other day, and thinking that we may well be the only planet in the universe that supports advanced life. There may be bacteria elsewhere but the kind of abundance that we have may be unique. I was also thinking that I suspect angels exist in the universe and that they keep a close eye on the show. The idea of one old bearded guy at the top would imply a monarchy and how could this amazing universe be run by a monarch–and sometimes a not so benevolent monarch. It has to be a democratic process, for democracy encourages diversity and, if nothing else, diversity rules. Angels. Why not? An entire universe manifested out of the Big Bang. Why not angels? I’m not talking about women with wings, but more like Tinkerbell. Flashes of light. A gust of wind. A warm breeze at the bend in a trail. The young woman who encouraged a total stranger–me–to keep climbing the face of Half Dome. Mother Theresa. Angels come in many forms. Far fetched? No more so than some of the beliefs of organized religion. If you believe some of their stories, you’ll have no problem with angels monitoring life on Earth.

Anyway, we live on a pretty amazing planet, where chemistry conspired to produce miracles that no other planet in our solar system experiences, like whales, for example, and Washington lilies, and Black crowned night herons, and spawning salmon, and river otters, and grass, and Coast redwoods, Deodar cedars, and dinosaurs, and Pacific tree frogs, and Grey wolves: I could fill countless blog posts with other examples.

The other day, I was sitting in my easy chair watching TV in our semi-urban condo, and a pair of antlers goes by our living room window. A buck has now adopted our house as part of its daily migration route between deer yard and feeding grounds. In Point Reyes, an entire forest has grown back in even more abundance only 15 years after a fire devastated the area. The Amazon, with stronger laws and enforcement by the progressive Brazilian government, is reclaiming vast cut-over areas, again providing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide so that life may continue. The planet adjusts to calamity and disaster, especially when human beings facilitate those adjustments. Granted, humans also act in unconscious ways that degrade the planet. That has always been the case. Part of my goal as a writer is to get people to literally fall in love with their planet. You care for what you love. And what you care for returns that love with the blessings of life. Along with those blessings is, ironically, death. But as Alan Watts used to say, imagine a world without death: It would be the worst hell imaginable, eventually leading to all life being choked off, resulting in a decaying, rotten planet where, again, only bacteria survive. Life needs death, to evolve, to diversify.

I came across the carcass of a Grey whale once on the Great Beach at Point Reyes, its flesh pocked with huge bites from Great white sharks. The noble beast must have put up an apocalyptic fight, but now it reeked of the smell of death. I thought of this difficult scene as I watched these many leviathans and their calves spray water into the air through their blow holes and their 40 foot bodies emerge from the waves. They live under the threat of great danger, not with the courage we assign human beings for courage implies a conscious decision to go into the teeth of danger. Whales swim through dangerous waters simply because that is what they know to do to complete their particular cycle of life. And that is why we must offer them protection–not from sharks, because sharks take only what they need–but from unchecked human desires and appetites. Angels are about, but they need our help.

The Mother of All Wildflowers: Found!

Stephen Altschuler — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:44:41 +0000

Ruth and I had been searching for ten years, as long as we’ve known each other, for this flower. Every year we would investigate the internet and guide books and talk to people who seemed like they’d know about such things. We would go on distant excursions–to Oregon’s Cascade Range, to a forest area above Mendocino, to Yosemite. We went to the wildflower show in Oakland to see a wild cutting hoping its aura would rub off on our psyches and guide us in our incessant search. Personally, I never thought we’d find it in this lifetime. I’d given up ever finding a Washington Lily, aka Shasta Lily, aka Cascade Lily, in the wild. Well, last weekend, we not only found one, but 20 some plants, near Lake Tahoe.

Ruth was the first to see it, upright and elegant in a forest clearing that had been logged over the past few years. She doubted her eyes, certain that someone had planted the rare plant. We approached knowing full well what the plant’s identity was. There was no doubting that: the Washington (named, aptly, for Martha Washington, our first First Lady) has a distinct signature, worthy of a Presidential reception. It’s a tall plant, three to five feet, growing singly with a cluster of white flowers, tinged with yellow then pinkish as it ages, its petals not unlike a bevy of ballet dancers swaying and pirouetting in the mountain breeze. Or, for those of you who remember, imagine Loretta Young, making her grand entrance on her TV show in the 50s, white gown billowing and flowing, her radiant and beautiful smile, the absolute epitome of femininity. That is the Washington Lily.

And the fragrance. As we approached slowly, closer and closer, we sniffed the bowl of the flower, to be transported to what surely is what heaven must be like if there is a heaven (or is the cosmic joke that we are already in heaven and don’t know it!). No artificial perfume can compete with the Washington Lily. I would stack it against the most expensive blend in the world. Imagine a peach, organic and at its peak of ripeness crossed with a fragrant rose. No, even that wouldn’t hold up. It was a fragrance that will stay with me until my dying day, and, who knows, perhaps beyond.

We had our cameras and slow danced around the lily, snapping away from every conceivable angle and nuance of light. For those few moments, for one of those rare times, the observer and the observed were the same. We looked at each other, Ruth and I, and couldn’t stop smiling and acknowledging our gratitude at stumbling, quite by chance, upon our magnificent find. Our search for the Grail of Wildflowers had ended, our minds free and innocent and washed clean of desire. We’d let go of this magnificent lily, and in the letting go, we’d opened some mysterious door into the universe of this flower.

Bowing deeply, we offer to you some of our photographs, taken with love and honoring the essence of the Washington Lily.