{"id":796,"date":"2010-08-01T20:34:31","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T20:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/?p=796"},"modified":"2010-08-01T20:34:34","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T20:34:34","slug":"holding-a-smaller-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/2010\/08\/01\/holding-a-smaller-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Holding A Smaller Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nBy Jim Drescher<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Great Eastern Forest is gone.
\nChopped down,
\nchopped up,
\nground to a pulp
\nso we can read about the global economy while
\nwe wipe our asses on the Great Eastern Forest.
\nFlushing it down the toilet bowl watersheds of our setting sun civilization,
\nwe barely give a shit;
\njust call for more from the exhausted forest.\n<\/p>\n

\nDamn the obstructionist environmentalists.
\nDamn the smaller-footprint freaks.
\nDamn the social justice junkies.
\nI need a new car
\nand a bigger house
\nand cheap convenient shopping at Superstore and Walmart.
\nI want my share.
\nI deserve it.
\nI work for it.
\nIt isn’t my fault if I exacerbate a few problems in the forest.
\nIt’s the government’s business
\nto control those nasty forestry companies…
\nbut I need their products and
\nthe job that spins off from what they do.
\nThey are contributing to the economy.\n<\/p>\n

\nI’m caught.
\nToo bad if it’s all going,
\nbut what can I do about it?
\nI have to have what I have to have.
\nI have a family to feed,
\nkids to take to hockey practice,
\nshopping to do at the mall.
\nI’m working my heart out.
\nWeekends are the only time I have for golf…
\nmaybe one ski trip at Christmas.
\nDon’t talk to me about disappearing forests.
\nBesides, they’re into sustainable forestry these days;
\nthey’re doing lots of replanting;
\nthe trees will grow back;
\nit’s a renewable resource, you know.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat do you want me to wipe my ass on, comfrey leaves?
\nAnd what do bananas have to do with the Great Eastern Forest?
\nYou try to make everything connect.
\nDon’t you think that’s a bit extreme?\n<\/p>\n

\nNext time you’re up in an airplane,
\non one of those necessary business trips,
\ntake a window seat,
\nhold your head against the window plastic,
\npeer down over the beauty strip
\ninto the devastation that was the Great Eastern Forest.
\nTilt your head;
\ntake a broad and long view.
\nImagine the forest that covered this land only a short time ago.\n<\/p>\n

\nNext time you find your feet on the earth,
\nwalk into one of those clearcuts,
\ntaste the intimacy of destruction.
\nNow remember the vast landscape you witnessed from the air.\n<\/p>\n

\nMake the connections.
\nDon’t die in denial.
\nWake Up!
\nIt may be possible to restore the Great Eastern Forest.
\nIt will take all our gentle effort.
\nNo more weekends of golf,
\nno more consumption sprees,
\nno more ski holidays,
\nonly genuine and effective caring for other beings.
\nIs the Great Eastern Forest worth the cost of our personal comfort,
\nand that of our family and friends?\n<\/p>\n

\nWaking up is not pleasurable.
\nEncouraging others to wake up is not always well received.
\nOn the other hand,
\nCommitting our lives to avoiding controversy,
\nto warding off death,
\nis futile.\n<\/p>\n

\nForest restoration is opening the heart,
\nhoning one’s discriminating awareness, and
\nmoving into a smaller seat.
\nThe earth’s touch is painless only to the insensitive.<\/p>\n

\nFlying Northwest Air
\nover the Great Eastern Forest
\n5 May 1997<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nJim Drescher<\/a> is a forester and a Buddhist. His is a major voice in opposing industrial forestry in Nova Scotia, Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim Drescher The Great Eastern Forest is gone. Chopped down, chopped up, ground to a pulp so we can read about the global economy while we wipe our asses on the Great Eastern Forest. Flushing it down the toilet bowl watersheds of our setting sun civilization, we barely give a shit; just call for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[123,124],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-ecology","category-poetry","tag-eco-poetry","tag-jim-drescher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stuzog.com\/dandeliontimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}