What We Can Learn in the Great Outdoors
When my son was perhaps 11, I took him camping for a few days in the High Sierras with some friends. We needed to buy permits at the regional ranger station, and I noticed that it was replete with cross-sections of a few of the great old trees that had fallen and had been examined by scientists. What can we learn from biologic history?
I noted that the display didn’t mince words about the fact that the age of the Earth was far greater than the 6000 years, as specified in the Bible. Here was hard evidence that the oldest tree is about 80K years old, not to mention that we have carbon dating that sets the death of the most recent dinosaurs at about 65 million years ago.
I asked the ranger if, occasionally, there were patrons who vehemently disagreed with the evidence in the displays on the basis of their religious beliefs.
“Constantly,” she replied, and when asked how she responded, “By immediately changing the subject. My favorites are: ‘OK, take plenty of water,’ and ‘That’s very interesting. The black bears are harmless, but stay away from the grizzlies.'”
All the tragedy in American society: the erosion of the middle class, environmental degradation, gun violence, bigotry, educational collapse, authoritarianism, etc., makes one wonder if there are any areas of improvement over the last few decades.
I met a woman just now who believes that nature always repairs itself. An example she offered was that our local lake (see left), after several years of severe drought, is now full due to the atmospheric river storms that brought record rainfall to the region. “I’m dry,” she said in a sad voice, imitating what the lake told Nature. “Don’t worry,” Nature replied cheerfully. “I’ll send you some rain.”
These people certainly made the prosecution’s job easy.
The author of the meme here certainly makes a good point, but I’m not too sure about the “beyond comprehension” part.
In “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu wrote: “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”
It’s almost as if the MAGA Republicans want to cultivate as much ruination as possible, so as to blame it on Biden.
Democrats?
No surprise: this hat is “free,” but only if the customer is willing to pay ridiculous shipping and handling fees. And for every 100 people who make a purchase, there will be at least another 30 or 40 who buy additional products that enable them to display their hate and stupidity to their friends and neighbors.
Here’s Athena Brattin. She’s a candidate for the school board in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
