Treasured Gains and Ignored Losses

Spring, by the time the calendar says it is springtime in this part of the world, is wide open and has been for a while. Except for short bursts of winter-like temperatures, we really do not have much winter on the lower Alabama coast.

At least nothing winter-like that compares with northern winters or out west in the Rockies. What we have is essentially a good long spring that starts along about the time folks up north begin shoveling snow and dealing with freezing drizzle … a spring-like season that lasts until summer conditions arrive long before the calendar says it is summer.

It is not a bad climate zone to live in … other than what we have to deal with where summer heat and humidity is concerned. And the occasional tropical storms and hurricanes that blow in off the Gulf of Mexico. Those can be messy affairs. The bad ones, the ones that give The Weather Channel something dramatic to report on, have a way of seriously rearranging the landscape and creating some severe challenges for people.

Summer vegetation and deciduous trees go dormant in the late fall of the year. Some of that has to do with a little frost that nips them. Most of it though has to do with the change in the amount of available light. The slight tilting of the planet changes the length of the daytime and nighttime hours and things go into winter hibernation.  Perennial vegetation regenerates from its roots in the spring after resting through the winter. Annual vegetation that is temperature sensitive simply outlives its time, dies off, and waits for the soil to warm before regenerating from seed.

The cooler autumn temperatures signals something in the cool weather loving plants that brings them to life from seeds deposited before dying off when the longer days and warmer temperatures come around in the spring.

Then we have our assortment of evergreens.

There is … warm weather or cool weather … always something green coming and going in this part of the world. Our winter world is never totally grey.

Quite a lot of the wild vegetation is edible when you know what you are looking at and how to use it. Not only is a lot of it edible. It’s nutritious. Not only is it edible and nutritious. Some of it is downright tasty. A different sort of tasty than what we are used to but tasty nonetheless.

Edible, nutritious, and tasty?

That is knowledge worth knowing. 

During good times it adds some interesting variety and an added dimension to the world we live in. It adds generous measures to our seasonal situational awareness. Those generous measures build personal confidence. We are daily … summer and winter … surrounded by valuable life sustaining resources that could, in a really bad situation, add to the possibility of getting through it and coming out on the other side alive and well.

I am always amused me when I hear people make the statement that if things get really bad I’ll just head to the woods and live off the land. Living off the land … deriving everything we need from its abundant resources … is a full-time every day occupation that requires a lot of personal savvy and some human powered tools that most people do not have at their immediate disposal. The emotional and psychological adjustment would drive most people into a state of depression or outright madness in a hurry.  Even with a well-equipped kit. Most modernites are not mentally geared to live off the land in the woods. The psychological factor is just one of the simple realities in the mixed bag of reality matters.

It is interesting how the natural world works. More than interesting. It is fascinating when you take time to consider it and how integrally and intimately connected we are to its cycles of life. Our own health as a species sharing the natural world with other species depends upon the health of the natural world and the other species inhabiting it. The natural world, and the other species that inhabit it, would get along just fine without our species tromping, polluting, abusing, and depleting it.

I think the main reason for the lack of modern interest in the natural world and its cycles of life is simply because people today do not view the natural world as the source that sustains them. It is basically a sustenance issue. As long as the food train is running … as long as the stockers are working … as long as the shelves and coolers at the stores are full and the cashiers are scanning at the check-out stations … there will always be a disconnect where the source issue is concerned. 

Stores, folding money, and plastic cards will remain the source of sustenance for folks as long as these three remain viable. People will remain oblivious to the real source and their dependency upon it. And, in the process, people will continue to abuse and damage the real source.

It is a really sad modern tragedy in these times that are our times. In examining, admiring, and polishing our treasured gains it is terribly easy to overlook and ignore our losses … despite their immense value that goes unnoticed and unrecognized by the vast majority.