
My mother who was petite and my father who was tall and as a child seemed big as a tree had mothers who reflected their physics, so naturally they were always referred to as the Little Grandma and the Big Grandma. With summer heat the Big Grandma had a great long deep couch gotten second hand and brought home on a horse drawn wagon, with arms which served as ponies my dad rode as a child. She would open old time ice trays and fling the cubes around the couch and then place herself on them for some relief and listen to baseball games on the radio.
My Little Grandma's theory was "it only lasts about three months" so she continued cooking on "ol Faithful" one of the largest wood cook stoves ever made, producing meals she loved proclaiming came totally out of her garden. Both inspired my view of summer and endurance.
Most traditional cultures and indigenous people have a reciprocal relationship with the world. They see it literally as a series of reciprocal exchanges in which the Earth has absolute obligations to humanity, and humanity has obligations to the Earth." Indigenous peoples, and as a Cherokee, certainly count myself, David Suzuki explains for most of human existence knew we were part of nature and understood we had to be careful not to jeopardize our place in the natural world.
So clearly, according to author James Hoggan, if we want to solve these global environmental problems we need to change the way we see the world and the way we interact with nature. And we also need to shift not only our attention but also our intention. Kris Sieckert had been Miami schools' psychologist who moved back to Wisconsin decades ago always used the phrase, 'Walk softly on this earth.' Years later I saw a bumper sticker: "Leave only footprints." There is a way to do this. We have control of the energy we use and the pressure we expel on this our Common Home as Pope Francis called this planet.
Years ago, when building my house, I decided against central air and heating, installing a wood stove and an attic fan instead. I have since added a small window air conditioner, and rely on it to pull moisture out of the house. The savings went toward the above ground pool, with no regrets. This season got away and we are just now swimming in the pool, but only after pulling out hundreds of tadpoles on their way to becoming frogs and putting them where? The wheelbarrow filled with rain caught water! What a sight. It made me happy that the pool had been getting lots of use and we were able to remove the tadpoles to take our turn.
Canadian science broadcaster and environmental activist David Suzuki said the problems we face regarding energy and environmental issues are not technological, political or economic. They are psychological, and the path forward lies in learning to see the world differently.
"The environmental movement has failed," because although we now have laws that protect clean air, clean water, endangered species and millions of hectares of land—we have not changed the way people think. "The failure was, in winning these battles, we didn't change the way we see the world ... We didn't get across the idea that the reason we wanted to stop logging here, or this dam, or this offshore drilling is we're a part of the biosphere and we've got to begin to behave in a way that protects the most fundamental things in our lives—air, water, soil and other species. That's the lesson of environmentalism and we failed to inculcate that in society," he said.
Now I understand as an indigenous person and an environmental activist we need to make sure we get into the wheelbarrow while there is still time. Perhaps we don't change minds perhaps we move people to want to get on board.
http://www.ecowatch.com/david-suzuki-wade-davis-ronald-wright-1888917337.html