Late Hayden Carruth Poem

After Television

I wonder continually about that time when we
Broke off from the other animals.  What were we
Thinking, if anything? Were we trying to toss
All of our aunts, uncles cousins into the
Dumpster in one grand renunciation? I wouldn't
Be surprised.  And was that the moment when
Our centuries of egomania began? Oh, my dears,
The Bengal tiger, the biggest cat in the world,
Who was our friend and protector on the plain,
In the tall grass and under the squirmy trees,
Is now down to a population of only 400.
Where did all the others go? Of course we know.
We gave the command that drove them out.  And then
So many, many thousand and thousands of other
Wonderful beings, whose minds and hearts we knew
In our earliest perception, knew and loved.
That knowledge and love tinge our thought
Today, and fill us with this inexhaustible sadness
Which we acknowledge in our mumbling days
And which cause us to nod our heads slowly
And stupidly when moonlight shines on water.

Sainkho Namtchylak

Doing annual accounting (not my favorite thing) but just discovered on new favorite singer Sainkho Namtchylak on YouTube.   And it's raining!!!

Country Zen

To imagine the thoughtlessness
of a thoughtless thing
is useless.
The mind must sing
of itself to keep awake

-Wendell Berry, from "Design of a House" (1969)

I think Berry and Dogen would get along just fine.

Energy

Met Prof. Charles Hall last week, which was fun.  He is all about EROI (Energy Return on Investment) and about getting the social science of economics to recognize the existence of the "biophysical" realm of stuff, which is to say embodied energy.
He mentioned that he had received his training from one Howard Odum , and lo and behold, here's a very lovely scientist-guy who saw the world exactly as the transformation of energy.  And you know he looks a bit like the wise old farmer in "Babe."

You might say, well of course economics is about stuff, but they, the Economists, don't talk about stuff, they talk about money - about interest rates and commodity prices and consumer confidence.  And you might say, well of course the world is composed of the transformation of energy, but you would be surprised how fixated we are by the thought that, no, energy is something you put in a gas tank or that runs in wires. 
That's how deranged we are by our own concepts.

New Year, Old Weather Pattern

Today the Wind came back.  It's a formidable wind out of the northeastthat beats that against the flank of Mauna Loa like a flail from 9 am until 4 pm, approximately.  It had stopped for a couple of weeks, for Christmas and New Years days, when it rained gloriously and gently on the wind-whipped land and green sprouts sprang up everywhere.  It is such a pleasure to be inconvenienced by rain: to have to run my back-up generator because the batteries on my solar-system run dow, to have to remember to roll up the truck windows, to have to wear rubber boots in the morning, and get splattered by mud in the corrals, to find out where the roof leaks, and where the road is pothole-d.  All of those little inconvenieces are a welcome change from the constant, gut-churning fear of running out of feed and water for the cattle.  I hope the Wind does not stay long.  I have hopes that 2013 will be a kinder year.