This is an image of a waxing gibbous moon taken this evening after a heavy rainstorm had cleared. It was captured with an Olympus E-3 coupled to a Takahashi FC-60 telescope (500mm, f8 objective – 1000mm using the E-3) mounted on a tripod. The exposure was 1/40th of a second at f8 with an ISO of 100.
I read a book, it seems ages ago, entitled Behaving as if the God in all Life Mattered by Machaelle Wright. It was at a time when I was caretaker for the Albert Schweitzer Center, a museum dedicated to the memory of Dr. Schweitzer. Machaelle’s philosophy in many ways is in parallel to Dr. Schweitzer’s “reverence for life”.
In the small community my wife and I reside in there are those who consider the vegetation growing in Shaw Pond, a small body of water near our home, an annoyance. I can understand their position as many of them choose to swim in Shaw Pond as well as use motor boats.
I personally see the body of water as a peaceful pond, utilized by beavers, fish and snakes, visited by geese and populated with many forms of vegetation in the water along its shores… a beautiful body of water to canoe or kayak in. Those that wish to use motor boats and choose to swim see a need to trap and kill the beavers, chase off the geese and throw endless sums of money at what seems a losing battle of destroying a couple of invasive species of vegetation through the use of toxic chemicals or other less harmful methods.
I am not so sure this is a great idea. It seems so radical and lacks balance but I guess that’s just one person’s opinion. It just seems to me that the world has lost its mind. Nothing seems to be considered sacred. Everything can be made to bend to whatever shape to suit our will no matter what the consequence. I don’t know, maybe it has always been this way, though in my opinion, if we don’t soon change our ways, we can kiss this world’s natural wonders as well as all that lives, goodbye.
“Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
‘Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it hereWe satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of GodAnd you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye”The Last Resort – Eagles
“Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.”
John Muir (1838 – 1914)
“Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.”
Lydia M. Child
This site contains original content held in copyright by the author, Richard Lovison.
