Yesterday I came across a news story about an invasive plant called the Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Then this evening CTV News had a story about the Giant Hogweed. It sounds like a nasty weed, partly because of its effect on the native ecosystems but also for health reasons, and it is spreading across Canada.
Sure enough, it’s in the same genus as Cow Parsnip (Heracleum maximum). That’s the species that grew in the bush down the hill from our house near Shell Lake when I was a kid. Having a hollow stem, it made great pea-shooters. Or chokecherry shooters. I remember some chokecherry wars involving my brothers Marv and Dan together with our cousins Dennis, Dave and Ken. They were brutal, but fun. I also remember how angry Mom was the day I filled the pocket of my good shirt full of ripe chokecherries and stained it beyond the power of any detergent.
But getting back to the Giant Hogweed … it too has a hollow stem, but the sap is toxic. I don’t know if its range has expanded to Shell Lake, but obviously using it for chokecherry wars would not be a good idea.
Since it’s been awhile since I’ve posted a Steve Goodman video, and since I like raw unvarnished folk guitar, and since there are only ten sleeps till I fly to England to join Janet and the girls…
I was reading another article today that seemed to categorize bloggers as miserable male malcontents with bones to pick.
It got me thinking about the blogs that I check the most often. I do sometimes wander over to some of the political blogs, to see what’s being said about the news of the day. However the blogs that I read the most are on my blogroll (along the right-hand side of my blog’s home page). Those blogs are mostly maintained by people that I know personally.
For the most part they are my fellow-travellers on the journey of following Jesus Christ.
And they generally don’t fit that stereotype of the angry middle-aged curmudgeon blogger.
Take for example my cousin Sharon A. and my work-mate and church-mate Sharon K. I don’t know a lot of people more positive than the two Sharons.
In fact, come to think of it, I’m probably closer to that stereotype than anyone on my blogroll. Luckily most of my friends are non-judgemental.
I haven’t seen The Green Chain, but if I notice it on a TV listing I’ll probably make a point of watching it, just to see if I agree whether it presents the different viewpoints on the forest industry in a fair way.
(It currently has an average rating of 4.1 out of 10 at imdb.com – that may be because it’s really that bad, or it may be because trying to be balanced just succeeds in making everyone mad)
A lot of the mail that appears in my mailbox goes directly into the blue bin. However what does one do with those envelopes from Capital One? I realize that they use bold black envelopes because they stand out, but I’m mildly curious as to how much de-inking would be required to make that into a usable paper product.
CBC News is reporting that some Saskatchewan rural municipalities are declaring themselves “agricultural disaster areas” because it’s too wet for the farmers to complete their seeding. I think my brother-in-law Gary is still only half finished seeding and might agree that the Birch Hills area could fit in that category.
This map from Agriculture Canada gives the story about the amount of precipitation our area has received this spring.
The dark blue colour represents areas that have received more than twice as much precipitation as normal since April 1. Click on the image for legend and more graphs from Agriculture Canada (ironically in a section they call Drought Watch).
In a culture where the sarcastic put-down is so greatly admired, is it possible to regain civility? The May 2010 issue of The Covenant Companion is introducing a new series on civility. The article “Civility and the Road Less Travelled” by Daniel de Roulet is worth a read.
That issue of the Companion also included a thought-provoking column “Why so hostile?” by John E. Phelan Jr., including this paragraph:
… differences of opinion do not distress or alarm me. Quite the contrary. Were our differences quashed, ignored, or minimized, then I would be alarmed. What alarms and distresses me is the hostility surrounding our differences of opinion. Our political and religious discourse has devolved into a wasteland of hostility. Murderous scorn is poured over opponents as if they deserved no respect or consideration for, if nothing else, their common humanity. Persons who temporize or try to see the good in another or their position are considered weak and contemptible. Ideological purity is required. Woe to the person who says something good about President Bush or President Obama, about Pope Benedict or Pat Robertson, about the Methodists or the Pentecostals, about the fundamentalists or the liberals. As poet Thomas John Carlisle put it: “I hate God’s enemies / with perfect hatred. / Why can’t God / do as much?
I’ve been as guilty as most of lacking civility in my discussions about issues about which I feel strongly, but articles like the above are convicting me, and hopefully tempering my speech.
