I am sitting in my stressless chair, watching 'Law and Order" listening to the evening Thrush, the Orchard Oriole, the Robin's night song, and watching the night fall slowly over Humpback Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The' spousal unit ' is reading, trying to ignore 'Law and Order' wondering why I spend so much time on the computer. The impetus for my speculation and wonderment about living in cities is prompted by 'Law and Order.' How do people live in cities?
My 4 yr old nephew asked me one day,"Carol why do you live out here with nothing but the rocks and trees?" My answer was, "Why Greg so you can come and visit us and throw the rocks at the trees!" He was dumbfounded. He needs his friends, the traffic, his 'school', McDonalds, the Mall etc.....He does love to come play in the creek and throw rocks as big as he can muster into the deepest pool he can find, but he doesn't like the dark out here at night. He wanted to know what we do when the lights go out in a storm at night. I told him if the storm was big enough to knock out the lights, the lightening would provide enough light to see. We have absolutely no light pollution and you can make out the constellations easily because if you know the stars they are so easy to find.
Carol, he asked me, "why is it so quiet at night?" "Because , I said, there is no traffic, nowhere to go and nothing to do but revel in the quiet so you can hear your own thoughts." He had a puzzled look on his face and asked where we got pizza. " We make our own, from the crust up." I guess he cannot conceive of a life without electricity, cable tv, take out and fast food, street lights and constant noise. He loves the wood fireplace and I was shocked when, last winter he said, "Carol you have fire in the house?" I have never known anything else. I have tried to teach them (him and his little sister) about trail markings, following creeks, moss and lichens on oak trees, how not to destroy or pick wild plants, how to recognize critter trails and droppings but I don't have them enough to make the kind of impact I'd like. I will NEVER forget when my neice,Libby, went running to her mother to ask for a cup to pick up the bear poop so everyone could see it! We were on a picnic by the roaring creek they so love. Our wild lands are disappearing, the cities gowing along with the ignorance of where we get our survival and I sometimes think I know how Native Americans must have felt when they saw us and realized our presence could not be turned back.
My own son now has an 18 month old daughter I would love to teach. I seldom see them, they live in Richmond, Va. Thats a city. They too love the city life. They have a huge 'media room' and the little one has 'Baby Einstein' on her own laptop. Sigh. What is a mother to do? This one will, no doubt, spend her Mother's Day photographing wild flowers before they disappear forever and listening to the creek while paying homage to the greatest Mother of all , MOTHER NATURE.
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