Everyday is Earth Day!

What does it mean to celebrate Earth Day? For many, as executive director for the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (LGBG)- www.lewisginter.org - Frank Robinson says, it means “to encourage children to develop a natural curiosity about nature, allow them to play in natural environments at their own pace and learn to follow their instincts.” Still, to mark the anniversary of a modern-day environmental movement, a special day – Earth Day - is set aside.

In 1970, Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nation-wide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment”. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press; and, air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. More often than not, the word ‘environment’ was a word that appeared in spelling bees rather than on the evening news. But on April 22, 1970 an event occurred that ignited our present-day 21^st. Century Green Revolution.

More than 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities also organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. As a result, groups which had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly became well-known.

A rare political alignment enlist the support of Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders resulting in the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts. Then, in 1990, Denis Hayes again organized a campaign and this time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues to world-wide attention. As the millennium approached, he spearhead still another campaign, combining the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990 and 5,000 environmental groups from around the world step on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries.

On April 22^nd  we again celebrate an event that has forever changed the way we relate to our environment. What can you do? As Robinson says, “encourage children to develop their natural curiosity about nature, allow them to play in natural environments at their own pace and learn to follow their instincts.” Robinson and his staff on Saturday the 21^st or Sunday the 22^nd. Have scheduled a Heritage Weekend at Historic Bloemendaal. Participate in an event designed to connect you with a Greater Richmond Area (GRA) site’s history and present-day garden space.   

If you are located nearby central Virginia, as another option, join me and my eco colleagues when we provide an opportunity for all to explore the wonder of science, connect with the green of our community. Scheduled Saturday April 21^st Henrico County’s Earth Day celebration is held at Three Lakes Park. As an eco advocate, I’ll be on site as an ‘ask the expert’ that provides strategies related to ‘greening’ urban suburban communities.

On the other hand, as Robinson implies, everyday should be a celebrated ‘earth day’. Consequently, year around, eco events occur. For example, the GRA’s Science Museum of Virginia daily supplies an opportunity to explore the wonder of science. Through hands-on demonstrations, crafts, and activities, children discover they can make a positive difference at home, in their communities, and in the world. Consequently, whether your child’s experience occurs through a book, backyard, organized community event or public garden activity, children can, as Robinson says, “be encouraged to develop natural curiosity about nature while playing in natural environments at their own pace and learn to follow their instincts.”

So, whether a resident of the GRA or elsewhere, join me in the celebration of a special event, Earth Day!

( Children Planting Pansies)

Sylvia Hoehns Wright
Member of the National League of American Pen Women.org

Upon Sighting Snow Geese, Flight North

Storm peeled back night sky's
skin, a deeper, pewter hue. In the west
shade's drawn, but overhead reveals
a slice of silver moon, dangles one crystal
from her chin. Thin feathers of clouds
friable as tissue in wind's steel, flee.

Snow dervishes dance, sway as if house,
tree angers air. Overhead, indigo behind
shining sliver, where star's eyes peek through
night's torn fabric; I hear them:

Above the hiss of blizzard's retreat,  slow flow,
softer whispers from folds of cloud
tatters, two no, three pastel streaks, geese.

Not familiar birds in tux or tails,
these glow white as swans. Quiet voices.
Pairs fly onward. Above me, upside down,
my eyes, snow geese, a raft of them,
rows of rafts, ride rapids through heaven's
open gate. "My God!" I call, unbidden two words leave my lips,
smoke  air that rips them from me,"Oh, my God!"
I turn, I turn, a child on a merry-go-round, fingers reach for

glowing geese, moon dangle, the clouds, snow dervishes'
demented swirl, this February night. Tears frozen down
my cheeks, it is all God.

Rachael Z. Ikins
-------------------------------------------------
Ask The Girl Arts (@pet services) on FaceBook
Www.rachaelzikins.blogspot.com
Www.writerraebeth.wordpress.com
Ask_the_girl_collectibles on eBay
Twitter: @justaskrache
 

The Bunny Whisperer

Marilyn Mansdorf  holds the honorable title of  "the bunny whisperer."   I met her a couple of years ago because she is an author.  You get to meet a lot of interesting people when you're an author.  She had written a children's book, "Bunny's Busy Day," and used photos that showed wild cottontails coming over to her house to play.  In fact, after they started coming to her house 7 years ago, she began to buy little toys for them to enjoy.  And they have come regularly ever since, bringing along relatives and the younger generation.
     Technology is a double-edged sword.  It can be extremely helpful in becoming known if you know how to network and use it properly.  On the other hand, the photos could have been photo-shopped.  Even though she wrote that they were very wild cottontails and in no way trained or enticed, how to prove it?  Before taking pictures digitally, she had taken hundreds of photos with the negatives to prove that they were not altered in any way.  But how to get someone to really listen to her that these were WILD cottontails?
     Being an author myself who is constantly frustrated by not being able to attract much attention, I understood her frustration.  While I wanted very much for people to understand through my book, "Memoirs of a Middle-aged Hummingbird," China's emergence  into stardom over the last two decades beyond anyone's expectations,  Marilyn was on a mission to teach young children tolerance and respect for the little wildness still left in our world.  Along the way, she had some encouraging false starts, but they faded away.  She kept asking herself, and me, "Why doesn't anyone care?'
     Marilyn has always been attracted to animals, and they to her.  She can't explain the last 7 years of these wild bunnies continuing to visit her without fear.  But telling other people about it became her passion.  With one book self-published, four books are awaiting publication until she knows how to reach markets for them.
   Although lacking skills in computer technology, Marilyn has an abundance of energy and passion to cultivate an audience that cares about the bunnies and their continuing desire to have a human friend.  Some friends helped get her website started at bunnybooksinc.com.  And recently, a beautiful article with many pictures appeared in the Orange County Register by Pat Brennan, Science and Environment Reporter.  He doesn't understand either why the rabbits come to visit her, but he believes her bunny friends and her mission is newsworthy.   The article is reprinted on her website.
     In the mission statement on her website, Marilyn hopes "that introducing children at a very early age to the mutual kindness depicted in my stories will help them grow up to be happy tolerant adults. My love of nature and photography has melded into a mission to educate us all on how to do the same. I have managed to capture on film the ultimate example of humans living in harmony with nature." Well said, Marilyn, and very well done.

Suellen Zima

Smart Squid

If there is intelligent life on our planet, perhaps we'd best look in the sea deep enough to find the "charismatic, enigmatic, and curious" cephalopods, including the mammoth squid, speedy octopus, and clever cuttlefish.  Wendy Williams has put together enough evidence to prove the truth of the title of her recent book, "Kraken:  The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid."  The author  first became fascinated by squid when marine biologists told her that "the squid deserved the Nobel Prize for their contributions to human medicine."  In scientific fact, "squid have even helped us understand the workings of our own brains.  Without squid, neurosurgeons would be a little less well trained, obstetricians a little less well informed, and geriatricians much less knowledgeable about the aging process.  In the near future, squid may help us cure Alzheimer's disease, improve camouflage for soldiers on the battlefield, and boost the health of babies born by cesarean section."
      While learning about the impressive talents of cephalopods, the author was attracted just because of their "uniqueness."  As she put it, "When the animals stare so intently into our human eyes, they are seductive.  With eight or more dangling arms and tentacles encircling their mouths, with the ability to change color and shape in milliseconds, with suckers as dexterous as our fingers and thumbs, and with eyes that are better than ours in some ways, they are enticingly, bewitchingly, exotically alien."
      Although human creatures have the hubris to believe in the superiority of human intelligence over anything else, the cephalopods have already survived five major mass extinctions over the past half billion years.  To learn that "we share a surprisingly large number of features with the squid" should be a humbling thought.  Did you know that each individual octopus has not only a personality, but also a quick intelligence that gets bored easily if  the scientist presents too easy a puzzle to solve?  And that they can be gentle and playful with humans?  Or that cuttlefish communicate with each other?
      This book is filled with personal anecdotes of the scientists studying these animals -- with awe and respect, I might add.   There were indeed jaw dropping revelations for those who have only envisioned the giant squid and octopus as vicious enemies on the attack.  Hollywood has done its share of portraying these monsters as diabolical and in need of being killed.
As I read of the amazing, much maligned, and little-thought-about cephalopods, I began to wonder what these intelligent creatures might think of humans.   Are the creatures being studied also studying us?  Do they find us boring, overbearing, arrogant, and cruel?  Do they question why human society creates so many problems for itself?  Are they mystified why humans fight so much and constantly agonize  over how to lose weight, find self-confidence, and become happy fulfilled individuals?
      Or, perhaps, like one space scientist replied when asked why we have never been contacted by intelligent life in outer space, we earthly humans aren't worth knowing.   We are too boring, too underdeveloped, too immature.  And given our track record of offending Mother Nature, we most likely won't be around to think about for too much longer either.
Comments?Suellen at ZimaTravels.com
Suellen Zima