Losing diversity and beauty - a metapersonal quandary

Sam has been reading a book which loosely classes people into three categories in terms of empathy and connectedness to others. The first category is kind of based in self, everything pretty much stems from the individual's own concern for their immediate personal needs etc... the next is interpersonal basically they have empathy for other people then there's this category, I think it was meta-personal. I think from what she described it encompasses that feeling of connection we have (or some of us have) for other living things.... or even places. 

I haven't read the book, I'm not familiar with the theory but I sure tend to feel a sense of loss when the environment I love is heartlessly reduced to a pile of rubble, broken trees and rotting folliage!

There is a beautiful native Gardenia I pass every day on my way to work. I noticed it a couple of years ago in the scrub beside Darwin International Airport. It's the only one I've ever seen. For most of the year it's a fairly nondescript woody shrub... but in the wet season and when it's flowering the foliage is full and thick and green and the flowers have the sweetest scent! Two years ago the location of the tree kept it well hidden but since work started on Osgood drive, the developers have crept closer and closer. Now the tree is in the direct path of a huge pile of clay fill which is being dumped in a pile right beside the remaining woodland. I can't bear to see this tree destroyed but I know that I must! I can't turn my back on a place I love! 

Already trucks have come so close to the tree that they've scraped bark off while dumping earth on the ground beside it. I am worried this beautiful plant may only have days left. 

I am hoping the tree will survive to flower once more this year so I can share just how beautiful it is. 

Losing it... for what?

My mind boggles and my heart breaks at the absurdity of our compartmentalized lives and the will for destruction of everything in the pursuit of personal gain!

I've just been reading a book titled 'Requiem for a Species', in which the very real, immediate and dire consequences of Global Warming are laid out with absolute clarity, yet when I step outside my door in the morning I look around and discover it's business as usual for all who should be concerned.

To rub salt into the would caused by the indifference of human beings. I cycle every day through bushland I have come to love only to find that it too is being devoured by the economic growth machine!

I have cried and I do cry when I witness what they are doing to the earth and to this place which I have a very real and very personal connection to. It seems no place may go unmolested in the age of mass consumption.

Images below are of land I am close to and ride through every day. I hope to document the beauty and the destruction over the coming months. If I had the power I would stop them, but I think I'd have all the impact of an insect against a windscreen.

Open woodland right beside current construction site.... about to be flattened! (16/08/16)

Native bee gathering pollen from Spear Grass flowers (Photo taken Wet season early 2016)

Spreading earth only meters away from the only Native Gardenia tree I've seen in Darwin (16/08/16)

The thin dirt path where Grevillia Grove used to be (Aug 2016)

Concrete pour (17/08/16)

Wildlife, bio diversity, beauty and all those things we think make life more tolerable on this planet aside. If we take the warnings of climate scientists seriously, then large scale construction needs to stop! Over consumption needs to stop! All our efforts must be turned to finding ways to live in a carbon neutral (or carbon negative) lifestyle or there will be no future for us.

Morning paddle

Just a quick post to say I had a fantastic time on the water this morning!

7 am paddle with 3 guys I really admire!

They are part of a special group of kayakers I know, all over 70 years old!

I was honored to be invited to come out kayaking with them about a year ago. When I thanked them someone muttered under his breath something about croc bait... (lol... always the jokers... But seriously I'd rather not be sent ahead on every trip!)

This morning a couple of the guys hoisted their sails and I got to see their sailing rigs in action. Brilliant!

We were also lucky enough to come across small pod of dolphins hunting fish off Mindil Beach again, second time in the past month!

I'd love to write more about them but I haven't asked their permission so this is just a sneaky post to show off some pictures of what the occasional morning looks like for me!

Ironic

Earlier this year I read most of Bukowski's 'Ham on Rye. The book was somewhat tattered and water stained. 

It was given to me by a mate who lives in the longgrass, he finds all kinds of interesting books which I am sometimes grateful he shares with me. (Other times not... depends on the book and what condition it's in, books get moldy when left in the scrub in a supermarket shopping bag)

As I came toward the end of the book I discovered the last 16 pages were missing! That was annoying, although if you've read Charles Bukowski's writing, (which, until Ham on Rye I hadn't) you may agree it was also a bit of a relief! Well kind of, he is so full of contradictions and a self deprecating humor, possibly a master of irony, I find myself loving and being repulsed by him at the same time.... much as I suspect he reacted to himself.

This afternoon as I was searching for some important documents in my mess of a draw at work, I found a small pile of yellow and creased pages crammed somewhere between something I was looking for last week and a bunch of stuff I should have thrown out a year ago. The final pages of the book! Hallelujah! 

Started reading and low and behold.... 4 pages were still missing!

 Frigging Bukowski!

 

TYPICAL!

To sea

Bitten by the sea,
fallen into the blue.

A fairly old poster. With thanks to Francis

My mate Francis gave me this poster. (Well it's still at his place but he said I can have it)
I don't know why it appealed to me so much, it just seems to have everything.

Blogging for what?

If anyone checks in on this blog from time to time, I'm sorry to say I've fallen behind in the game of life and have had no inclination to be journaling the finer details of my absurd existence... Yet... here I am wanting feeling like I should post something, it's been a month since I last wrote anything and July could easily pass without me entering a single detail. I have trouble recounting events in order, or even recalling the details of most days, but I usually take a few photos, which are good for jogging my memory. I won't write much, I'm still not interested... As I wandered through the local St Vinnies oppshop I noticed the attendant taking pity on me. I admit I looked pretty shabby. As I drove home I looked in the car's rear view mirror and the phrase which probably defines me came to mind... "You look like nobody owns you". No this is not a declaration of my freedom from conformity or defiance of institutions of rules... Those words have been said to me on many occasions, usually by older ladies who appear to be concerned for my welfare in some way and they are said with pity. The meaning being. "You look as though you have nowhere to live and nobody to look after you." (ergo. You look like shit and you can't even take care of yourself, isn't there anyone who cares enough to feed, dress and groom you?.... You need a carer) Here's the photos.

Kayaking in Darwin (HMAS Darwin at 1 0'clock)

Approaching Warruwi Goulburn Island

Centenary celebrations at Warruwi Goulburn Island

Developing the north (in all the wrong ways)

Last of this season's Rosella's stewed in a pot

Jasper the budgie chick, a friendly fellow