The new president of the United States – President Hub
I am constantly amazed with the creativity of humans. Early this morning I was reading the blog of my friend, Dr. Becky Johnen which this week is entitled “Turning negatives into positive”. She recounts the story of Grace and Walter Lantz who on their honeymoon had to compete with the constant noisy work of a woodpecker. When they got home they created the cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker which would bring joy and often wisdom to millions of people. Something which they could have allowed to ruin their honeymoon became the source of a lifelong collaborative work bringing them even closer together and providing a source of income. Rather than getting angry and seeing the woodpecker as the enemy of their peaceful honeymoon, Grace and Walter welcomed him into their new marriage. (https://authorbeckyjohnen.wordpress.com)
Often, it seems many of us have a difficult time accepting that each of us are part of a magical, interdependent system. We spent endless amount of energy treating all that we experience as outside of ourselves as an enemy or an object to be used for our immediate comfort. In the end, as we know, all of creation suffers as a result of our seemingly ignorance or refusal to accept what scientists increasingly verify as the same truth which so-called primitive people have always intuitively known. We argue about such things as the extent to which human behavior is responsible for damage to the balance of the climate. We seem to reject the idea that we need a more loving, respectful relationship with all of creation. The “other” humans cry out for a recognition that they are part of a community. Instead of acknowledging that we all want/need to be part of a community, we focus on their method (often cruel and self-destructive) of communication and ignore the basic cry.
Last week here in the United States we experienced a fear baiting and carnivorous feeding in a gathering of those who label themselves Republicans. This week the danger is that those calling themselves Democrats will do the same while claiming that their style of throwing out the meat to feed the fear proves that they are different. Both seem to be feeding the same basic fear of “the other”.
There is no shortage of wise men and women who seem to understand that in each case the process is the same despite clothing their presentations in the costumes of different designers. If we cannot “hear” these wise men and women perhaps we can hear the wisdom of my choice for president – President Hub.
This morning I was listening to a Ted Talk by Suzanne Simard entitled “How trees talk to each other” (June 2016). Dr. Simard is a professor of Forest Ecology in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
Her research of “infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate and further allows the forest to behave as though it’s a single organism” confirms, once again, the need of all of creation to bear witness to the sacredness od interdependence. She says of her research:
“The C-13 and C-14 was showing me that paper birch and Douglas fir were in a lively two-way conversation. It turns out at that time of the year, in the summer, that birch was sending more carbon to fir than fir was sending back to birch, especially when the fir was shaded. And then in later experiments, we found the opposite, that fir was sending more carbon to birch than birch was sending to fir, and this was because the fir was still growing while the birch was leafless. So it turns out the two species were interdependent, like yin and yang.”
Furthermore, there are “hub or mother trees”.
“We call those hub trees, or more fondly, mother trees, because it turns out that those hub trees nurture their young, the ones growing in the understory. And if you can see those yellow dots, those are the young seedlings that have established within the network of the old mother trees. In a single forest, a mother tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees. And using our isotope tracers, we have found that mother trees will send their excess carbon through the mycorrhizal network to the understory seedlings, and we've associated this with increased seedling survival by four times.
When mother trees are injured or dying, they also send messages of wisdom on to the next generation of seedlings. So we've used isotope tracing to trace carbon moving from an injured mother tree down her trunk into the mycorrhizal network and into her neighboring seedlings, not only carbon but also defense signals. And these two compounds have increased the resistance of those seedlings to future stresses.”
If the reader wants to know the detail of how the trees communicate read or listen to Dr. Simard’s Ted Talk or google her name for links to other talks and papers she has written. I am hopeful that the reader can accept that just like a family of humans each type of tree and other vegetation has a role in this very intricate and interactional system. So-called primitive people have always known that humans can use some of offerings of other parts of nature, but care must be taken to not destroy the source of the gifts. It is only with an immense sense of respectful gratitude for the entire system that one can use these gifts.
President Hub will bring her wisdom, gratitude and nurturing abilities to the leadership of the United States thus focusing on honoring the sacred roles of all the parts of the whole. There will be no “other” or arguments about esoteric issues such as climate change.
Mother Hub will lead us to a new kind of victory.
Written July 24, 2016
I am constantly amazed with the creativity of humans. Early this morning I was reading the blog of my friend, Dr. Becky Johnen which this week is entitled “Turning negatives into positive”. She recounts the story of Grace and Walter Lantz who on their honeymoon had to compete with the constant noisy work of a woodpecker. When they got home they created the cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker which would bring joy and often wisdom to millions of people. Something which they could have allowed to ruin their honeymoon became the source of a lifelong collaborative work bringing them even closer together and providing a source of income. Rather than getting angry and seeing the woodpecker as the enemy of their peaceful honeymoon, Grace and Walter welcomed him into their new marriage. (https://authorbeckyjohnen.wordpress.com)
Often, it seems many of us have a difficult time accepting that each of us are part of a magical, interdependent system. We spent endless amount of energy treating all that we experience as outside of ourselves as an enemy or an object to be used for our immediate comfort. In the end, as we know, all of creation suffers as a result of our seemingly ignorance or refusal to accept what scientists increasingly verify as the same truth which so-called primitive people have always intuitively known. We argue about such things as the extent to which human behavior is responsible for damage to the balance of the climate. We seem to reject the idea that we need a more loving, respectful relationship with all of creation. The “other” humans cry out for a recognition that they are part of a community. Instead of acknowledging that we all want/need to be part of a community, we focus on their method (often cruel and self-destructive) of communication and ignore the basic cry.
Last week here in the United States we experienced a fear baiting and carnivorous feeding in a gathering of those who label themselves Republicans. This week the danger is that those calling themselves Democrats will do the same while claiming that their style of throwing out the meat to feed the fear proves that they are different. Both seem to be feeding the same basic fear of “the other”.
There is no shortage of wise men and women who seem to understand that in each case the process is the same despite clothing their presentations in the costumes of different designers. If we cannot “hear” these wise men and women perhaps we can hear the wisdom of my choice for president – President Hub.
This morning I was listening to a Ted Talk by Suzanne Simard entitled “How trees talk to each other” (June 2016). Dr. Simard is a professor of Forest Ecology in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia.
Her research of “infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate and further allows the forest to behave as though it’s a single organism” confirms, once again, the need of all of creation to bear witness to the sacredness od interdependence. She says of her research:
“The C-13 and C-14 was showing me that paper birch and Douglas fir were in a lively two-way conversation. It turns out at that time of the year, in the summer, that birch was sending more carbon to fir than fir was sending back to birch, especially when the fir was shaded. And then in later experiments, we found the opposite, that fir was sending more carbon to birch than birch was sending to fir, and this was because the fir was still growing while the birch was leafless. So it turns out the two species were interdependent, like yin and yang.”
Furthermore, there are “hub or mother trees”.
“We call those hub trees, or more fondly, mother trees, because it turns out that those hub trees nurture their young, the ones growing in the understory. And if you can see those yellow dots, those are the young seedlings that have established within the network of the old mother trees. In a single forest, a mother tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees. And using our isotope tracers, we have found that mother trees will send their excess carbon through the mycorrhizal network to the understory seedlings, and we've associated this with increased seedling survival by four times.
When mother trees are injured or dying, they also send messages of wisdom on to the next generation of seedlings. So we've used isotope tracing to trace carbon moving from an injured mother tree down her trunk into the mycorrhizal network and into her neighboring seedlings, not only carbon but also defense signals. And these two compounds have increased the resistance of those seedlings to future stresses.”
If the reader wants to know the detail of how the trees communicate read or listen to Dr. Simard’s Ted Talk or google her name for links to other talks and papers she has written. I am hopeful that the reader can accept that just like a family of humans each type of tree and other vegetation has a role in this very intricate and interactional system. So-called primitive people have always known that humans can use some of offerings of other parts of nature, but care must be taken to not destroy the source of the gifts. It is only with an immense sense of respectful gratitude for the entire system that one can use these gifts.
President Hub will bring her wisdom, gratitude and nurturing abilities to the leadership of the United States thus focusing on honoring the sacred roles of all the parts of the whole. There will be no “other” or arguments about esoteric issues such as climate change.
Mother Hub will lead us to a new kind of victory.
Written July 24, 2016
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