When living the music fest life
There is very little stress or strife
A little rain..well, sure
But, a lotta music..so pure
Today On Earth
July 2023 - On & Off Earth
Living in the woods, I am very aware, on a daily basis, that I share my home with lots of other creatures. While I hadn’t seen a bear in the last two years I knew they were still there. But, then you see one in your yard and your bear awareness becomes much more acute. It was not the huge guy that had become an annual spring visitor, just a youngster but a bear nonetheless.
Bears may top the wood’s wanderer list, but our cool and very dry spring has left all the inhabitants of our forests ranging a bit farther in search of food and water and survival. Recent rains have certainly helped re-green the forest and our lawns and gardens. All were much in need of a good drink before July’s summer temperatures finally do arrive.
Life on Earth will make quick work of that water, improving local wild food conditions and hopefully allowing raccoons, deer and bear and all their friends to dine in the woods and not in our gardens and at our bird feeders. As always, my moss went from pale and crunchy to green and cushy very quickly after the first shower.
Just off Earth, July begins with a bright gibbous moon extending the already late twilight of early summer evenings, brightening to the Full Buck moon on the 3rd. The Full moon is near Earth, perigee, again this month while the Earth is at aphelion, farthest from the sun, on the 6th. The moon’s nearness will dramatically increase the ocean’s tidal range; the sun’s extra distance will still offer a little gravity assist with the tides but will have little effect on cooling global temperatures.
Mars and Venus’s reign over the southwestern sky at dusk wraps up in July. Mercury joins the other inner planets along with Leo’s Regulus and from the 18th through the 20th welcome a very thin crescent moon to the sky show for one last, good look. A prime view spot and binocs will help! The sun moves from Gemini to Cancer on the 22nd.
In early July, on the 4th, for 247 years now, Americans have gathered to celebrate our independence from England. Crafty statesmen came together back then to conceive and give birth to our experiment in democracy. They overcame much to set us on the path that still requires involvement from us all.
A few years back, as I was slogging through Thomas Malthus’ incredibly dense An Essay On The Principle Of Population, I was struck by this quote, true 30 years into America’s democracy and sadly, still true 247 years later.
“But nothing is so easy as to find fault with human institutions; nothing so difficult as to suggest adequate practical improvements. It is to be lamented, that more men of talent employ their time in the former occupation than in the latter.”
While Malthus’ predictions of mass starvation and societal collapse due to population growth have been delayed by scientific advances in agriculture and medicine he did not foresee, his simple thought on ‘complaining without offering practical solutions’ remains right on the mark.
There were challenges overcome, practical solutions offered in 1776 with a population of around 3 million. America’s exponential population growth, over 100X to around 335 million today has seen the challenges grow exponentially, too.
The good news and our hope for a better future is that among those 335 million clever brains are those willing to not just point out the problems and assign blame but offer ‘adequate practical improvements’ that will guide us to our 250th birthday and far beyond. We can come together, we can get along, but only together… even with wandering bears.
Lil' rain...turtles on the move!!
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