Where are the sacred lands?

Such a bland diet

I think a great deal about the bland visual landscape of our young century. Although in American cities, new and exciting designs are being explored and utilized -- from the ordinary bike rail as sculpture, to the growing cultus of temporal, public art pieces - and importantly, clever, green architecture edging away from the constraints of past and poor templates, elsewhere, we are stuck in somewhat of a time warp.

The pre-green era blandscape continues to carry the cache of aggrandizement - living on with no twist of genius. This is vividly apparent when one drives up the commercial highways of rural/suburban America. Personally, I'm intrigued by these commercial roads - the Route 9s, Route 300s, Route whatsovevers that shoulder the big box economy. They continue to power up and define our public spaces.

In this new age of C21, progressive change is painfully slow to arrive on these commercial highways. Case in point -- new construction in the city of Newburgh, along the Hudson River. Its major commercial throughfare is Route 300, soon to be a new home to a Staples Super Store. A fragment of an apple orchard sits on this still undeveloped land. But, as soon as the construction project rolls out, this sweet orchard will be vanquished - swiftly. Rigid town planning, copycat developers and unimaginative municipal boards keep things this way. They work in perfect harmony to keep the visual status quo on these roads. The orchard could be an added perk for the harried Staples customer. Saved, its solid boughs could bear ruby reds for decades to come, providing a welcome depth of shade from hot summer sun, and hopefully a berth for a song bird et famille.

Considering that apples are the New York State royalty of the vegetative world, such a deviation from the Staples template to accomodate this coterie of fruit trees, would be reasonable and modern in thought. It would express compassion towards the assets of this Earth( thus backing away from the tenets of municipal environmental and visual amorality). And yes, would spice up the bland daily diet of big shop boxiness and black top.

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Mother Earth has something to say.

As we drag our heels toward colossal, eco-wise change, we knock off the days and hours before our sweet earth just can't do it anymore. She just can't adjust to the daily thrashing, the synthetic hounds of damnation, the push off the man-made cliff.

"Let me be beautiful before I die."

And she will be beautiful before she dies. Her final sea waves will hurl up,in perfect, muscular form. Her hardwood forests, drawn and quartered by our unrelenting speed and greed, will splinter and flatten with the scream of angels, and her ice storms will crackle and walk with frosted magnificence. This final anger will shuttle us to a place we certainly don't want to go. The current static state of sweeping environmental policy, and the march of global industrial enterprise will surely lead us there.

Folly of Man

I think I knew a great deal about "folly of man" early in life, say 5 or younger. It happens when you are terrified of a certain parent in your life. A part of you grows up fast and sharp. The rest of you lags leagues behind. But you do know fear, crystal clear, and that is transformative. Folly articulates in all ways and today I'm thinking about political folly, environnmental folly and those who love to kick around the powerless and snatch what is pure and good in life. I'm thinking about the reckless talk of socialism on the news and in the papers --socialism being defined as anything for the common good. And that is folly. Our earth is melting, the U.S. economy is in a sink hole, our hungry are painfully hungry, we pray we don't get "really sick" because we can't afford to be really sick, and college cost for our children soars to an unprecedented high. And throughout, our overseas enemies eye us with unending fascination -- savoring these days of turmoil. To the very "right-minded" we can torture foreign prisoners not charged with any crime, and do so on U.S. soil with cruelty to spare, but nationalize health care?, my God, such a "socialist crime" against our liberties. Ample servings of folly all around.

Boccaccio's Bats

From Boccaccio's The DECAMERON, " It is a wondrous tale that I have to tell: If I were not one of the many people who saw it with their own eyes, I would scarcely have dared to believe it, let alone to write it down, even if I had heard it from a completely trustworthy person. "

The bat plague is going on larger unnoticed and yet if it remains unstoppable, the consequences are truly grim. As the death toll rises, the amazing eco-work these misunderstood creatures can no longer do, will take the modern world by surprise. And yes! We take so much for granted in the here and now. We sneak many a wrongful environmental act and think it goes by with less than a response. But it has impact and it is noticed.

Who has patience for this story? Not the stuff people on the street really want to know. Too much anxiety already surrounds us - our financial world is crashing and our unknown next president looms on the horizon -- but we are tethered to an animal kingdom we think we are no longer members of. And shall be till the end of time. We cannot be so smug. We cannot want our bland, well-behaved lawns and our gardens of meek flowers so weed-free that we take the world down.

Scientists are taking a hard look at the role pesticides might be playing as the bats are felled by disease. And, interestingly, Prospect Park in Brooklyn has turned into a safe haven for fragile populations of bats. The lucky ones. Here, park management eschews pesticide use and has returned indigenous plants and trees to park environs.

If the industrious bat vanishes, the insect world will lose its cool and what follows is crop annihilation and virulent forms of disease. Let not our human arrogance to push nature aside take us to this place.

As Boccaccio wrote in Florence, 1348 - "How many noble men, how many beautiful ladies, how many light-hearted youth, who were such that Galen, Hippocrates or Asclepious would declare them the healthiest of all humans, had breakfast in the morning with their relatives, companions, or friends, and had dinner that evening in another world with their ancestors!"

Disease can move like a torrent and we have to obtain the figure-out wisdom plus the willingness to change behaviors. Tall order.

More Public Art

The above image represents the work of Canadian-based artist Thom Sokoloski. His extrordinary public art projects animate shared common spaces in fascinating ways. Titled the Encampment and placed on Roosevelt Island, New York City, this particular project was a highly involved participatory exchange between history, personal recollection, artifact and more. We need these great artists to stir our minds and hearts -- free of charge, barred to no one.

Who would know this beauty now?

A Beautiful Image of Old Route 9 in Fishkill, New York

It is good to know the beauty certain landscapes once possessed. When the 1-84 highway came thundering through back in the 1960s, this tranquil scene was gone forever -- a vista swept-clean. Construction workers on that highway detail unearthed artifacts of pedigree - each a piece of our human history - blown to the four winds - lost to personal collections, the auction block, attics or the trash.