Bernie Paquette
Hearing the National Guard drive by in their heavy-duty trucks and tankers on a Sunday morning in November in Jericho, Vermont makes me wonder. Divergent thinking, breaking out of norms, escaping no longer useful traditions, exploring new ways of looking at life. To guard or break paradigms I ask myself.
What is up with 70 degrees at 7 am on November 6, 2022, in VERMONT?
And why does it both please me and scare me?
Just doing my job, man. Ya, I get it. Pays the bills and all that. Protects us from evil-doers. “Providing trained units to the states, and keeping itself equipped to protect life and property. The Guard also provides trained units to the nation equipped and ready to defend the United States and its interests all over the globe.”
Divergent thinking leads me to, softer bullets, tanks made of Jello of all colors, and F-35s that fly silently guiding vagrant birds back to their homeland. Why not low-impact bombs that explode with native wildflower seed, you know seed bombs.
Where will the wildflowers find a place to grow, given that some 40 million acres of land in the US have some form of lawn on it? Where will people and nature’s wildlife go, when the Sunshine state becomes a giant saltwater pool, Texas and the rest of the south no longer dip their toes in the hundreds but instead oven-roast most of the year?
Diversity be dammed, what do we need with so many species of butterflies, bees, bats, and Blue-eyed Darners? Can’t we just make more, isn’t that the power of technology, to just keep on making more things we want and enable us to destroy and extirpate?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ligula suspendisse nulla pretium, rhoncus tempor fermentum. The pain itself is very important, there is no price for suspending the ligula, it is time for the fermentation.
Just saying what comes to mind. Bear with me it gets even weirder! Then again, 70 degrees in November in VERMONT, WTF?
They call me unorthodox, but what is normal anymore?
“This is the story of America. Everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do.” - On The Road, Jack Kerouac. So what if a bunch of men grunt and groan over their big heavy machines like Tim Allen, tool man in Home Improvement. Mowing grass and leaves as if time was free and abundant and beneficial insects did not need such habitat to overwinter, or need flowers to feed upon in the spring and summer.
Divergent thinking? Not so far out at all. Less lawn, less maintenance, less work, more free time, more diversity of life, pathways into a backyard of elegance, entertaining, if not elusive creatures to discover and observe.
What will the neighbors say? Must guard the turf. We have always done it that way. Can’t let it be said that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
MY GRASS SYMBOLIZES SUCCESS! “Lawns are indicative of success; they are a physical manifestation of the American Dream of home ownership. To have a well-maintained lawn is a sign to others that you have the time and/or the money to support this attraction. It signifies that you care about belonging and want others to see that you are like them.” - The American Obsession with Lawns, Scientific American.
Hearing the National Guard rolling by in their heavy-duty trucks and tankers on Sunday morning in November 2032 in Jericho, Vermont makes me wonder. Where have all the flowers gone? The butterflies, the birds? Why is it so hard to grow food, never mind buying it? When will the weather ever just be normal again? At least I don’t have to cut the lawn or rake the leaves anymore. I have so many more important things to try to protect, that is to say, what is left of them, before they are ALL GONE too.
Bernie
Thinking of breaking paradigms that are no longer helpful to us.
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