Clare Consultation, LLCWasp stings are annoying — The crashing unpredictability of severe weather is deadly
Ok — From Fracking the past two weeks to wasps. Tipping my hand here: I find myself thinking of the former at the causal edge of ongoing climate degradation while the latter live on the continuous curve of the climate’s changes. That, of course, places wasps in the company of all breathing and otherwise animate things (like people, rivers, pine cones, lentils …). In particular, wasps have been on my mind because… Read More
A Mandan-Hidatsa Elder and Civilian Warrior Speaks of Fracking
Today is Veteran’s Day. Today we honor people who have placed their lives on the line to recover peace. Per Capita, more Native Americans serve in the U.S. military than any other ethnic group. In recent data out of the Department of Defense (2010) the contrast shows up in the fact that while Native Americans make up 1.4% of the total U.S. population, they compose 1.7% of the country’s military. Over 20%… Read More
Fracking — Any Hope of Listening Here?
NOTE: Here’s a brief statement by a conservation writer and a response from a person with another opinion. Both are residents of the same area of Montana. My question to myself – to all of us – is how can these two people listen to one another? How can they be in conversation toward some level of understanding – even action? Is it possible? And before I leave you to read their… Read More
Wolves, Humans and the Errors of Fast Thinking
So, a few years ago a Nobel Prize winning economic scientist named Daniel Kahneman took a pretty astonishing look at cognitive, biological and psychological habits of minds faced with the need to make judgments or decisions. His observations show up in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Needless to say, there’s a lot in this book. One powerful trend Kahneman found in human decision making indicates that when we make quick… Read More
Things that Fall from the Sky
“If you have time to stop for a minute, I’ve got something to show you back at the bus,” my new friend Peter says. “Something that fell from the sky.” “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” I ask. His blue eyes spark as his usually stone-still face lifts with the hint of a smile. “Yep,” he says, “bigger than a breadbox.” We are sitting across from one another in a red vinyl… Read More
Glimpses of the Rural/Urban Thing in the U.S.
Most Februaries I spend bemoaning rain, rain, rain, while walking around my everyday life in Portland, OR. In February 2009, I was on the EX:Change road trip – cruising down the west coast and taking a left so that by Valentine’s Day, on the interstate from Tucson to Albuquerque, I was pushing 80 mph behind an 18-wheeler named for that very day (really…see EX:C blog photo, 2-18-2009, Cattle Trail). Now it’s February… Read More
What the Land Holds Up
Just home to Portland from a week in the Texas Hillcountry. I did lots of my growing up on the land that stretches out either side of the Guadalupe River. This week I returned to that river and those hills to see friends I hadn’t seen since all of us were 15 years old. That’s a long time. There’s a word used to describe this aspect of human systems – equifinality (thanks… Read More
Because I Knew You Then, I Can Listen to You Now
I spent the last week with a friend I had not seen since we were both 15 – a friend I met when we were 6 and in elementary school in Sweetwater, TX. By the time we were 12, serendipity of some wild Texas variety had turned circumstances so that we both showed up in Mrs. Southerland’s English class in Peterson Junior High School, Kerrville, TX. His family had moved to start Gibson’s, an early version of discount stores now dwarfed… Read More