While sitting in the yard I noticed a spider had attached a web to a potted sunflower I had recently moved. The spider was repairing it's web. Either that or it was building it from scratch. Whatever it was doing, it was a fascinating process. I set my camera on a tripod about 4 feet away using a telephoto lens and tried to frame the activity. The early afternoon sunlight was coming from behind the web. It made seeing difficult.
I noticed first off that the spider was working counter-clockwise. Then I began to take note of the dexterity and coordination of the spiders entire organism in relationship to the task at hand. I began to pay attention to all the little legs moving purposefully and smoothly in coordination. It was like watching an experienced dancer or figure skater or mime. The dance floor, if you will, took on the appearance of an old bicycle wheel with wire spokes. Each silken 'spoke' being attached to the rest of the 'spokes'. When you watch the video you'll see. It's quite amazing what this critter has done. I took multiple video clips of the spider of various lengths. At the time I was photographing the light was blinding and I was unsure what the camera was seeing. It actually came out pretty good. The very last clip I shortened and changed to one quarter speed. The result is a crystal clear detail allowing the viewer to examine the web repair technique of the spider and hopefully find yourself a little in awe. Imagine having to do something like that yourself! I was impressed with this little critter on many levels. It not only accomplished this amazing task, it appeared to do it while facing backwards and extruding the thread from its abdomen and attaching it to the existing structure while facing the opposite direction all the while in counter-clockwise movement. At some point I began to speculate on how the web design began. It appeared to me that the entire web was built utilizing a longer, possibly thicker thread. The thread extended from the sunflower on one side which appeared to function as an anchor, to another plant on the other side having the same function. The center of the web appeared to be in the center of this central thread.
(late edition. Came across this documentary on the life of Pete Seeger and thought: "This guy sees the world pretty much the way I do." It's a documentary on his life with the discussion of some good ideas not often entertained in the Mainstream Media, but they are ideas which are useful to us at this time in our experience.)
It has slowly dawned on me that America is not on the mend. It's this
climate change / break-down that is shaking the world and has woken me up.
Now, finally now, it is evident that the way of life chosen by
industrial nations is responsible for this current blitzkrieg of climate
revenge. We had declared war on nature, but eventually it was determined we
were outmatched.
In other words we have been engaged in killing the planet and ourselves
for a long time but we didn't know it. However now we do know. It's way past
time to avert the calamity we as a species have produced. Nature, our opponent of choice, has chosen to react. But it is not too late
to change our minds.
I knew this before in an intellectual way. I had poetry published for
the very first Earth Day in 1970. To the right is a photo taken of the pages of the Nickel Review which was published in Syracuse, N.Y. in the late 1960's and early 70's. It's not really a great poem. This plight of the environment is an issue
I've been aware of for a long time. I've
always spoken against poisoning the environment. However I think in the back of
my mind I felt sooner or later people will see what they are doing, come to
their senses and stop doing it. So far I was wrong.
I consider those doing this kind of harm to the general living space of
humanity to be eco-terrorists. However the ones trying to stop them from doing
it are being arrested as criminals. The Corporate Media reports it as if the
polluters are in the right. If the Corporate Media reported all the details the
people who consume that information would make the attack on the earth stop.
You would, wouldn't you? Such is the failure of the Corporate Media.
It is time to recognize that those political decision makers who have
made the most primary decisions regarding the welfare of life on the planet
have utterly failed those people who drink water and breathe air. However they
have served Corporate People who do not need air and water with the greatest of faithfulness.
The failure they have produced is evident today in the condition of the
environment. They have done it in support of the health of the economy which is
defined by the prosperity of Wall Street and not by the ability of the planet
to support life or for your ability to enjoy life.
This dereliction of duty by those in control has not gone completely
unnoticed. Thanks to the Alternative Media such as Democracy Now, and the work
of Chris Hedges and many others, this dereliction of duty has been explained in
a way sure to appeal to those accustomed to making rational decisions based on
humanist values.
However on the other hand there is the Corporate Media which functions
as an information outlet for the State, (status quo) promoting the nation's wars and identifying its alleged enemies and providing topics for political wrangling to consume the mental energies of the populace. I regard the Corporate Media mainly as a means of
misinforming the general public with the purpose of getting folk to think and
talk about the same meaningless political topics which are designed to alienate one group from another.
It was corporate policy to build a pipelinewhich is destined to bring
about the death rattle of Mother Earth. It has been the policy of the Corporate
Media to explain to the viewer that those opposed to the pipeline were
criminals. This has just played itself out and is still playing itself out.
Just imagine if a flood takes out one of those tar sands pipelines, or a wild
fire! Take a look around you. Are you in
a flood, a wildfire? Somebody is burning down the proverbial house out here on the West Coast. I suspect
the dangers of a possible occurrence will not have much airtime in the Corporate
Media until a couple of days after the disaster. But today we have big floods and large fires where before there were
none. It's happening in Houston, it can
happen in a town near you too.
It is the Alternative Media which tackles these topics. The status quo
is willing for you to bicker between left and right and Russia and emails and
corruption in political places. But you get the feeling that the impending
devastation of the planet by the products of manmade climate disruption isn't
worth much time and space to the Corporate Media. It seems they
wish to keep political discussion at the 'panty raid' level. And it seems to be working.
Which, again, is why the Alternative Media's role is so important. The
Corporate Media has completely washed its hands of encouraging a serious
discussion on the human caused environmental calamity which is upon us. The
momentum in favor of proceeding on with climate devastation could be abated if
the amount of time spent on Donald Trump's pomposity was substituted for
in-depth rational appeals to abate climate death, and biocide. But don't hold your breath!
A society which will take away the quality of life on the planet in
exchange for wealth is a spiritually dead society. To engage in such activity
is the greatest disrespect that can be shown to the Creator. In the words of
Alex Grey's World Spirit"America, you have sold your soul for a little
capital."
Men have been told to fear the wrath of God and have imagined a fire
breathing angry man in the sky hurling lightning bolts. And so they laugh at the idea. But the wrath of
God is more like Karma. It's something we do to ourselves in defiance of the
Creator; things like poisoning our air, food and water while burning the planet
down around us or some other such foolishness. It is our presently chosen way
of life which requires us to behave like this.
We're waist deep in the big muddy once again. The big fool is still saying to push on.
I made the video below in response to the corporate assault on the planet.
