Fourteen turkeys, 3 hens and 11 poults scratch a living from this land. Meleagris gallopavo, subspecies Rio Grande, are doing very well since the early 1900's when only a few thousand were left in this country. Now it is suspected that there are close to 7 million. This flock loves the dirt. They have cleared out two crops of corn as they were coming out of the ground, scattered wood chips from beneath trees, and accidentally dug up plants.
On one hand we are tempted to chase them away. Maybe have them live-trapped and transported elsewhere. On the other hand, this is their land and has been long before we came here. To what extent do we domesticate the land and remove the animals we don't like. The turkey question is a dilemma for us.
It is one of many potential dilemmas that people in rural areas face. We moved out here to be surrounded by trees, song birds, sprinting bobcat (a story for another blog), the sound of the creek and wind... being removed from the high tech convenience society. Yet we drive 40 minutes each way to our work, use chain saws/weed eaters/lawn mowers to remove what we don't want. Listen to iPods while mowing the lawn and take digital shots of this beautiful land to put onto an online image storage site. We plant beautiful flowering plants to go with the preexisting abundance of color. Yet we mow down the beautiful dandelions in our yard/meadow.
I once heard a report that people who live in rural areas of the United States use 17% more energy than those in urban areas. We move out here to be part of the land and wind up using more energy to keep it the way we want it.
Life is filled with dilemmas. I think life is a continual shade of gray. It is analog rather than digital. When I was younger it seemed that life was going to be more certain as I got older. Yet the truth is that it is more complex. During my idealist days in the peace, environmental, and social justice movements the direction and purpose seemed so much clearer. Now, I am certain of the complexity of life; the impermanence of all that lives; the fact that all that lives will decay and die. Creatures transform, just as concepts, principles, and ideas morph during different phases of life.
One constant is that Mother Earth needs our attention. This is our home and we each have a part to play. The way we play our part is where the dilemmas come in. Our logger/hunter/rancher neighbors see their path as leading the good life and taking care of the land. Our friends who deeply believe in Peak Oil and the coming dark ages see that it must be taken care of in another way.
The problem with gray is that there is not a clear point of accomplishment. Is success when we get rid of the turkeys? Is it when we shift our minds to include them as part of our extended family and just don't plant what they will destroy? Is it when they are on the dining table of a local bobcat?
Any one who professes to have THE answer, doesn't.
We are constantly faced with dilemmas: turkeys, dandelions, gas use, concrete footprints, carbon trade-offs. The best we can do is our best.
John Mayer, in the song Belief, sang the following lyrics:
Is there anyone who ever remembers
changing their mind from the paint on a sign?,
is there anyone who really recalls
ever breaking rank at all
for something someone yelled real loud one time?
oh, everyone believes
in how they think it oughta be
oh, everyone believes
and they're not going easily
Good luck with your dilemmas.
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