The Tangled Web

"And I told him that a man's life is always dealing with permanence- that the most dangerous kind of irresponsibility is to think of your doings as temporary. That, anyhow, is what I've tried to keep before myself. What you do on the earth, the earth makes permanent."
Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth. p. 180

Oreon Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Nation, writes: "We are looking ahead, as is one of the first mandates given us as chiefs, to make sure and to make every decision that we make relate to the welfare and well-being of the seventh generation to come. . ." "What about the seventh generation? Where are you taking them? What will they have?"

Today, the soil is drinking in the rain and the earthen cracks have healed themselves over. Walking through the corn and squash patch, my boots became caked with clay. Sunflower heads hang down, reaching to the earth. A few squash blossoms valiantly hope to be productive and they are as they laden the bees with even more pollen. The honey bees and yellow jackets still fill the raspberry row and serenade me as the fruit go into the carton (and a few in my mouth).

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive! 

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.

We have woven such a tangled web in our individual and collective lives. This week it was announced that the Oregon legislatures will be coming back into special session to consider taxes and cuts. One of the deals that was cut to get some to come back was that they could vote on a bill relating to GMO crops. One part of it is a contingency that wants to restrict local governments from being able to put in restrictive/ banning measures for GMO crops. It is distressing that people who rail against the abrogation of state rights are willing to override local rights. Are all GMO's bad? Are all "natural" products good? No to both. Yet, I had a discovery this weekend that demonstrated the issue of unintended consequences. I planted sweet corn and popcorn (pink)- they were planted too close together and the sweet corn was hybridized. It looks pretty but doesn't taste all that great and some of the kernels are hard. 

 

A thing to ponder.