While reading this article I began to choke and felt absolutely disgusted by the close proximity of this. It was recently released that Indiana "ranks fourth in the nation for carbon dioxide emissions" from the state's old growing power plants. This is not only contributing to global warming but is also unhealthy to the citizens who live and visit the state. Being so close to Indiana and frequently visiting the state left me with a dark feeling. I'm truly concerned as this is just the start to what could become a major environmental disaster.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGCi0sLwhIiIYZdCnBVNS4oEkepwD9C65FGG0

Here I find a great linking of nature with religious experience. God is interpreted in many ways and many of these connectins are made in silence. In most cases we watch nature grow and move in silence and Mother Teresa sees that as a divine experience:


"God is the friend of silence. Trees, flowers, grass grow in silence. See the stars, moon, and sun, how they move in silence.
- Mother Teresa

Nature can often suprise us and rattle us with her unpredictable ways...but in a beautiful way we can predict what is to come which is one of her delights. Rachel Carson reminds us with this:


"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter."
- Rachel Carson

The Opening Statement to "The Trouble with Wilderness" hit me harder than the fastball that drilled me in the ribcage last spring. This has become my motto over the last several years as nature as become exactly my escape. Other then family and friends, the environment is the only constant factor that exists in life. No matter where we are we can count on the environment to be there for us and it has become an escape from the cruel industrial world that is tearing through Americas untouched lands. I appreciated this opening statemenet and the significance it holds to my own philosophy.


"For many Americans wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth. It is an island in the polluted sea of urban-industrial modernity, the one place we can turn for escape from our own too-muchness." - William Cronon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.
~Alexander Pope

Due to the heavy traffic on 94 today I decided to save myself the extra hour of driving to Bridgeport and exited off California Ave. and drifted into the Logan Sqaure neighborhood. Walking down Logan Blvd., California Ave. and Milwaukee Ave. for almost two hours it hit me that I had never remembered roaming through a neighborhood with the observational sense that I did today. I picked up on many social, structural and natural aspects of the neighborhood and was taken away by the differences I encountered when I left Logan Blvd and walked further up California Ave. I will account my observations into a "derive" and I look forward to sharing my encounters.

Tomorrow I will venture into the south side of Chicago to engage in the derive. I'm going to the neighborhood of Bridgeport which has historically been an Irish neighborhood, but has also become very diverse over the last several decades. I have been to this neighborhood many times before but I am excited to observe it in a different light and take notice of the natural world, trash, character, people, terrain and other intriguing sights that may have never caught my eye before. I am looking forward to this idea of "drifting" and writing about an environment in which we often do not interpret as "real" nature.

Further evidence of the delight one can receive from nature that cannot be found in a book or anything artificial...

"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."

Walt Whitman

"All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God."

- Thomas Browne

The greatest aspect of nature is the fact that it is the one constant in our lives. No matter what happens, mother nature will always be present and available to us which makes the environment one of the only greater things in life we can count on. Perhaps this is why we are so aesthetically attracted to our surroundings and find nature to be a great escape.

The day, water, sun, moon, night - I do not have to purchase
these things with money.
- Plautus

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/green/chi-indiana-dunes-south-18-nov18,0,4642992.story

The Indiana Dunes, about an hour southeast of Chicago, have been experiencing extreme changes in its species including the decline of the Karber blue butterfly. Experts have attributed this to "warmer winters; predicted drops in Lake Michigan's water level; precipitation downfalls, which lead to flooding; invasive species; air pollution; and declines in fish populations from warmer-than-normal summer temperatures." This sounds like the direct result of global warming and while scientists are not positive on this, they have enough evidence to indicate that climate change is a major factor. Global climate change is affecting many aspects of our environment, and closer to home we see how a national park's species are beginning to decline due to the earth's changing temperatures.

I gaze out my window and into the rain that falls from the ominous sky. I wish for it to go away, but go with the flow as I'm struck by the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.”

I have found Styrofoam to be an extremely challenging text, but creating my own poem in this form was a fun writing experience. I never before found myself on google or surfing the web with the intent of poetry in mind and I found myself linking ideas that one would not immediately find related. This form of writing is very new to me and I anticipate reading similar texts and acqaunting myself with "documentary poetics." Its disorienting style is becoming easier to interpret but I find this style more adventerous and out-of-the-box than any other poetry I have read.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicago-water-16-nov16,0,6718001.story

Mayor Daley is considering leasing "Chicago's vast water system" and he is experiencing much criticizm due to disasterous plans by cities in the past. To make a water supply private would be a major move and could come back to haunt the city of Chicago. Taking control of a major waterway and making it private is taking control of an environmental space that was meant to be public. The environment continues to be taken advantage of and I anticipate Mayor Daley's decision as I feel the city may be going beyond its boundaries to use the land for more $$$.

An artistic perspective on the environment from one of the greatest artists to ever live. Nature has played an influential role in art as its aesthetic beauty is one of the most pleasing visuals to the eye. Van Gogh could not have said it any better:

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.”

-Vincent Van Gogh

Tshulu Camp

I have never been to Africa, but reading this article fascinates me with how the locals have transformed a struggling area into a tourist spot that actually benefits the wildlife. It is naturally constructed and in no way interferes with the ecosystem of this region. The bird life is described as "profilic" and the aesthetic features of Northeastern South Africa are stunning. The people have also benefited as this camp has provided work to this 3rd world part of South Africa.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/other/sns-travel-africa-ecotourism,0,3637241.story

The environment has a way of communicating to us in which other humans beings cannot. Advice to all:


"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."- Anne Frank

"City air makes free"- Jane Jacobs Death and Life of Great American Cities

For the past couple of weeks I have had this line in the back of my head. It believe it can be interpreted in many ways. Though, I have come to interpret this as once one enters the city they are free in identity and can express themselves freely without worry of judgement or prejudice. The city is a big place that flourishes with culture and ethnicities. When one immerses in this atmosphere they are freed by the city scene or "air" as it is referred to. This is why I have come to love the city and the sense of freedom that it offers.

A simple message with a large lesson:
"The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finally we were graced this weekend with the presence of the Indian summer. My spirits were much raised as I was able to make it to the beach and feel as if spring was beginning to bloom. Mother nature has her ways, and this weekends suprise temperatures were warm in more ways than one.

An interesting interpretation of the endless mass that is the sky. Emerson finds deep aesthetic value in the sky and links it to a common necessity in life.

"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." Ralph Waldo Emerson