Nature Cure

This book is not what you think. You think it's about one man's experience finding nature to be the remedy to his depression. In reality, it's more of a coming of age story about a middle-aged man who struggles with depression. It's not exactly a tell-all, though. It's more of a tell-some, hint-some, and some awkward euphemisms.

Richard Mabey relates to the swifts who come back to Britain every year to nest in the roofs and barns. He starts off talking about a baby swift he saw once and flung into the air and off it went. Out of the only house he's ever known, he seems to bounce around from friend to friend for a while--the time line is sketchy--before ending up in a house in Norfolk. There he meets a woman--not yet divorced--and they start a romance. It is really love that gets Mabey out of his depression and he dedicates the book to Polly.

Nature features in this book, but just as clocks would for a clockmaker or bikes for a cyclist. Nature is what he does, what he studies, what he knows and what he thinks about. It's background trying to be foreground for the story he tells. 

It has some lovely moments in it, but it's not his finest moment. While I appreciate that he's writing about a difficult subject, I feel that if he were to do it at all, he really ought to be honest. I suppose, a man with his reputation, he couldn't write a book called Love Cure. He is known for his nature writing.

Rumor has it, though, his collection of essays "A Brush With Nature" is fantastic.

  

"Act of God"

God has come up a few times today. Today is Patriot's Day here in the states. There have been news stories about it which have included references to state militias and tea party groups. One man was talking about how unhappy he is with the way this country is going and how he simply wants to protect the constitution and his God given rights. It occurs to me that it's the Bill of Rights and the Constitution that give him rights, especially the ones he was referring to, not God. The other reference was to the volcano that erupted in Iceland. Flights have been ground for days now. The CNN screen text said, "Day 5". The military is calling this E-15. E for the first letter of the volcano. 15 for the fifteen letters that follow the E. It's disrupting the military flights in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Act of God in this context came out of a discussion about money. The pundits were guessing that airlines would filing for money from the governments, particularly the EU. Apparently during and after 9-11, airlines got money from the states. They joked about what travelers were to do -- how some have been really inventive, using Twitter to get travel advice from locals, bumming rides to the south of Europe to try to catch flights and ferries. About those who bought insurance which often protects against weather (meaning covers costs, etc), the "expert" was having a laugh about hating the fine print but being sure that somewhere in there, section 52, paragraph 8 subsection 9 was a clause about how the insurance didn't protect against Acts of God and volcanoes. I'd be curious to know how a legal document defines an Act of God and how weather and a volcano differ from that. I think this is a nice opportunity for the world to pause and remember that nature is a pretty awesome and powerful thing. Not even our biggest, baddest, heaviest beasts can battle with volcanic ash hanging out in the atmosphere. Let's all sit back and take a breath (if you're in a cloud of volcanic ash, find a mask first). What were you doing that was so important it couldn't be delayed a few days?

Daffolids

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Dusting off

I've not been writing for a few reasons. One is that I've been discouraged and disheartened and haven't had much to say. The other, more recent, one is that every time I sit down to blog, not only have I nothing to say, but I think of how I should be preparing for my essay instead. So, in the spirit of spring, re-emerging after a winter hibernation, I'm attempting to pick this back up on a more regular basis. The challenge will be to come up with something interesting to say or an interesting way to say something. Maybe I shouldn't worry about that and just write.

I am what I eat.

I am celery from Spain, beef from Ireland, orphaned carrots from a plastic lined bin. I am a single green bell pepper chaperoned by two beautiful Israeli red bell peppers; I come from Holland. There's an age difference and we don't speak the same language, but it doesn't matter. I'm a Dutch cucumber portion sweating in a bag. I am authentic Italian penne pasta made in Italy for a British supermarket chain; I am not suitable for microwave. I am imported Parmesan cheese. I am the happy egg company medium, British free range eggs from brown ear-lobed hens. I am of world class quality and grown in environmental and responsible ways. I am the occasional square of Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate. I am a carefully-selected-from-a-dizzying-amount-of-options, multi-national concoction representing maximum choice on a sliding scale of price and down to earth value. I am red kidney beans in a tin. I am a purloined onion from a bag under the counter (sorry, flatmate). I am half a toasted loaf of Warburton's seeded batch, baked sandwiched between other loafs for extra softness and sprinkled with linseed, millet, poppy, sunflower, and sesame seed. I'm a dash of olive oil spread. I am chunky peanut butter because it's 15 pence cheaper than smooth. I am not a banana due to delays in just-in-time shipments caused by a broken down lorry. I am a big bowl of Halal and Kosher certified Kellogg's Bran Flakes (an extra special treat no longer available in the United States), food of my childhood, drenched in store branch organic unsweetened soy milk at 7:30 every morning and sometimes for dessert. To top it off, I am the better part of 340 grams of Essex-made Tip Tree "Tiny Tip" Raspberry conserve that may or may not have come from berries grown in Essex.

Perspectives

On our field trip the other day my tutor remarked that I had a special kind of perspective not being from around here. At the time, I said it was just a different perspective. It's been challenging at times to figure out what's going on, to not know the trees or the places or any thing around the places I've been reading about. It has, in so many ways, been starting from scratch. I don't think it's any kind of advantage and upon further reflection, I think it actually puts me at a disadvantage. These places I've been reading about and visiting have no meaning for me. I know nothing about them, I have no connection with them, no prior anything. So I have to construct things. That takes a lot of work, a lifetime, you might say. I remember the first week hearing about our trip to Orford Ness. That meant nothing to me. It was a fine place to visit, fascinating to hear Rob speak about it, fun to wander about, but at the end of the field trip I left the island. I could take it or leave it. I can make something of it, or it can be a place I visited once. After this course, I will leave England and while my knowledge of the country and in particular East Anglia will be greater than it was before I came, I don't know what that will mean for me. I won't have the opportunity to see these places, to pass by them, to hear about them, to visit them. In some ways, that makes me a tourist here--just passing through. I don't think I have the advantage. At least, not in the way this course has been taught. If anything, it's a constant game of playing catch up and then still missing out on things.

Every day something new

I think spring, more than the other seasons, is a time of great change. From one day to the next things are new and different. A daffodil plant sticking up through the dirt one day, a bud the next. Snow drops just sprouting today, crocuses tomorrow. I enjoy seeing these changes take place. They give me hope, along with the lengthening of the days that warmer weather is coming. I can't wait for daffodils, tulips, and buttercups. I hope to see bluebells and nightingales and all of the other good things that come with spring and summer.