Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Seals are not dangerous.
Takeaway message from the seal “attack” in West Vancouver Tuesday: don’t feed wild animals (and yes, definitely put your kids in a life jacket around water)! Though some news agencies have not reported on this, prior to being pulled into the water the girl was feeding the seal fish guts as her father cleaned fish on the docks. This is a practice that the kids love according to other fishermen and is quite common on the waterfront.
Which is somewhat akin to people who think it would be “fun” to swim with orcas, or try to get their children close to black bears for the photo opportunity. Let’s be clear, wild animals have the right to be left alone by us, and if we don’t leave them alone and then get hurt it’s not exactly the animal’s fault.
The real shame of such ignorance about the wild is the number of comments I’ve seen on news sites this morning calling for the seal to be killed or taken into captivity by the Vancouver Aquarium. Which seems to always be the solution to anything “we” don’t like: kill it, bomb it, shoot it, drown it, capture it, torture it. As though we aren’t culpable in our own actions, or for that matter – reactions. As though humans are the threatened species, rather than the other way around, and our rights to kill extend to luring animals into dangerous situations and then “putting them down for public safety”. Although it’s illegal to hunt in such a manner, there seems to be no ban on people acting in such a stupid fashion that an animal ends up dead.
I suppose what things like this really highlight is the disconnect that most people have with our own wild and uncivilized roots, from the land itself, from other undomesticated beings. Hell, many people even have trouble mustering empathy when it comes to other humans who aren’t just like us which makes the wholesale slaughter of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan somehow acceptable. The attitudes are indeed one and the same no matter whether we are talking about a seal “cull” or the need to root terror out of x,y, or z country.
The upshot of my post? Leave the damned seal alone. And don’t feed the bears/seals/racoons/coyotes/cougars.
Writing and rejection.
This week I received my first rejection letter in a long time. First rejection letter in a long time because it was my first submission to an actual real publication in a long time. Three poems from the series I’ve been working on, sent off in early June as part of an assignment from the writing group I belong to. I won’t say to where because that’s less important than the fact I received not only the form letter, but an encouraging handwritten note by the poetry editor who said – “I enjoyed reading these, please submit again”. This implies (to my literary ladies and Brian at least) that the poetry is good but doesn’t fit what the journal is looking for. Which is heartening – if they are telling me the truth about the rarity of such handwritten notes on rejection slips.
In any event I’m actually pleased about the rejection as it implies having work finished enough for submission – which is a big step forward for me after years of “wanting to find more time to write”. I plan to edit these pieces one more time and send them out to another journal for consideration – hoping that at some point they get printed on someone else’s page somewhere.
Interesting but untenable.
An interesting concept in hydroponic food systems that can be implemented in small spaces, allowing a family to get at least some of their nutritional needs met without relying on environmentally costly food transporting, or the use of large tracts of land/fertilizers/pesticides. Interesting, but unrealistic (try growing grains, substantial protein) and fundamentally missing the point by suggesting yet one more atomized approach to addressing larger social problems. Design concept yes, but I appreciate where it starts with backyard, rooftop and guerilla gardening – all of which can promote people working together to produce healthy food while decreasing environmental impacts.
As sterile and organized as this all looks, I can imagine it’s only a matter of time before the fish-water is fouled and the kids break one of the glass panels while engaging in rough-housing.
Bookish: Latest find
Bought this fabulous find from 1936 for Brian while I was in Nanaimo. Notable for not only its good condition, but for the plethora of classic authors within its pages – W.B. Yeats, John Reed, Virginia Woolf, H.L. Mencken are some of the few. A good reminder that there was a time when the greats were publishing piece by piece in the magazines of their day – and also that a great many of them were leftist enough to be submitting to the New Republic. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s pieces in the anthology include a sonnet for Sacco and Vanzetti. Only $8 at the antiquarian book store – it’s a definite score on the collectible front (for us anyway).
Audience share request.
I’ve got a little favour to ask of those of you who read & enjoy this blog…… since I’m trying to build my readership again (I do this from time to time – make an effort to attract more people here). You probably haven’t noticed, but at the bottom of each post is a “Share and Enjoy” heading, under which are icons for Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon etc. What I’m hoping is that those of you who are members of said services to click on the share button for articles that you read and enjoy. Not just for anything, of course.. the posts you enjoy and would like to share with others in your social network. Really I just wanted to point out that those icons are there to click for that purpose because I don’t think they are very obvious.
If there isn’t anything you want to share with others – if my blog is your own private workaday secret – that’s cool too. But, you know, it would be nice to make some new friends on the wide ocean of the Internet.
Having said that, I’m in Nanaimo tonight, so this will be it for postings until tomorrow. I posted two new items at Among the Weeds yesterday if you are so inclined.
Red Cedar 