Flower Time

Madison and the rest of Dane County have become more "green" over time, and were a little ahead of their time in this effort.  That's what happens when the man who started Earth Day is from the area - and was a Wisconsin Governor before becoming a U.S. Senator (Gaylord Nelson) - and is also home to Aldo Leopold and John Muir.

Just like growing up in a home tends to influence the young ones to follow in Mommy and Daddy's footsteps - the area where you spend your formidable days is part of what shapes your view on things down the block and around the world.

I noticed that difference during the time we lived in Indiana.  When we left Wisconsin, there was mandatory curbside recycling, and as a kid I collected aluminum and steel cans (remember steel pop and beer cans?) to turn into the recycling center to earn a little spending cash.  It shocked me to see Hoosiers throw their pop cans in the trash and pay not attention to what number was on the bottom of the plastic bottles they used.

Liberals are sometimes derided and sometimes praised for some of the initiatives that have come along, all the way back to the New Deal.  But the idea of conservation, recycling, and protecting the earth never seemed to me as just a "liberal" idea.

Yet, for some reason, it seems our political lines seem to be drawn along the lines of Republicans wanting to use resources with little thought to consequences while some Democrats want to avoid creating power of any sort (while driving their fossil fuel cars and hooking their home to the power grid).

It's an area for compromise and deep discussion in order to find a middle ground with solutions that can better care for the earth and preserve it.

That's the perspective I see in the account of Creation in Genesis 1:

 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; 

male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Replenishing, subduing, and dominion; to me, doesn't mean treating the planet like a disposable tissue - rather things should be used, but carefully to wring all the use out before discarding.  

Which brings me back to the picture at the top of the page - the Cone Flowers are in bloom in the traffic median in Fitchburg, Wisconsin -  in a 15 foot wide swatch of natural prairie grass and a haven for birds, insects, and small mammals.

It's prettier than a manicured carpet of blue grass and provides an oasis of oxygen producing plants in a cityscape.  That's more for both our noses, and eyes, to take in during a morning commute or trip across town.