Leaving Leaves

MY ENTIRE YARD, which is not small, is now completely covered with leaves, mostly red, orange, and yellow maple leaves, but some oak, and a few other varieties. My beautful ornamental maples become gorgeous while most trees remained green, especially on the distant hillsides, remained gloriously, resplendantly, vividly bright for a few days, then blew off during a windy day. It was heartbreaking and frustrating at first, but a little internal evolution taught me that my memory was intact, and that I ought to be grateful for what I had, and still have. Now the ground is colorful, and the ornamental maples are bare branched, a special kind of beauty all its own. There are, however, still millions of leaves left on my many trees, about twenty five trees in all, and as the fall progresses towards winter, the yard will get deeper...and deeper, in leaves. That's fine with me. Eighteen and a half years ago I built a house in a very small town, because I couldn't afford to own a home in a city. I bought a piece of land with only a tree or two, put up the house, then planted trees all over the yard, front and back. The brand new house was sitting in the middle of a barren, rock strewn construction site. I wanted to change that. Now, nearly two decades later, I have a yard full of big beautiful trees, deciduous trees. I recall my sweet mother, RIP, suggested many years ago that I might eventually come to regret having planted all those trees. I could and can see her point, but, no, no regrets here. I don't mind the leaves, and I don't mind the dark cool house in the summer.The trick to dealing with the leaves is to not mind them. My house faces the south; during the hottest days of summer the house is very dark inside, surrounded by and shaded by many trees. In the winter, with the sun low in the southern sky and shining straight into my house, and the leaves off the trees, my house is bright, well lighted naturally, and cheery, just what I want in the deep dark days of winter, not that winter days are so deep and dark anymore, what with climate change...(in my neck of rhe woods, winters are warmer every year, as are summers).....By the time spring arrives, my yard will still be covered with leaves, but not utterly inundated with them, as I will continue to dispose of six big barels of leaves every week, focusing on sweeping up big piles and keeping them spread out, to prevent wildfires. With the first lawn mowing, they will be reduced sufficiently to mulch, fertilizing the soil. I have little appreciation to vast, beautifully maintained lawns with a thick cover of grass, every blade identical,looking almost like plastic carpet or artificial turf, not a single weed, and myabe one scraggly young tree surrounded by a brown mulch circle. To me, that's boring, and I think its also not the best way to cooperate with nature, which, if we are smart, we will begin doing much more of. I am big proponent of "no mow May". Also, of leaving a few small areas of one's lawn in a "naturally wild" condition all year long, for insects and for the planet. The plastic grass have no trees because trees block the view from the street of their half million dollar home, and, after all, since each and every leaves must, absolutely must be policed, no trees means no troublesome, annoyng back breaking leaves to blow away or mulch. Most people seem to tink that such intricately manicured, uncluttered lawns are beautiful; I beg to differ.The more you think about it, the more you realize America's multitude of cultural mental illnesses, hatred of trees being among them. Endless rows of million dollar houses, perfect lawns, not a weed, not a blade of grass out of place, few if any trees. How barren, how extreme. The world is reaching agreement that thirty percent of the planet's land must be set aside for nature, as wilderness. To me, that number seems low. In my more perfect futuristic world, the human population would live with modest living standards, small vertical dwellings, with most of Earth's land and water left for the billions of other species which we all too often seem to ignore.

Nationalizing Christian Bigotry

 CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM is, on the surface, an innocuous enough term. Devoutly patriotic, one might say. It seems to imply a combination of devotion to faith and love of country. deep religious devotion and patriotism are generally considered to be among the highest virtues. They combine church and state,  which the constitution mandates be kept separate, but are nonetheless usually placed in one special place together by American conservatives. In truth, the term "Christian nationalism" means much more than merely being religious and patriotic at the same time. it is a far right movement, in which the central belief is that special privilege should be given to white Christian conservatives who were born in the United States. It is a racist, religiously bigoted doctrine, inherently antithetical to liberalism, any religion or non religions other than Christianity, non whites, and those of foreign origin. In essence, it is the Ku Klux Klan by another, less pejorative name. Alarmingly, a high percentage, exactly what percentage remains unclear, of American evangelical fundamentalist christian embrace it, just at they in overwhelming numbers support Trump and believe that the election was stolen on behalf of the Democrats and Joe Biden. It is modern America's versions of fascism, modern America's version of the nineteen thirties Hitler movement in Germany. even more alarming is that it has already been in power, and resisted being voted out of power by staging an insurrection in an attempt to overthrow the government, and may come to power again, by legitimate electoral processes. The potent combination of religious fanaticism and political right wing extremism is especially concerning, for its potential for violence and coordinated resistance to progress. American Christians and conservatives see the United States becoming a country they do not like. The christian faith is declining in membership as a percentage of the general population, as teh baby boomer generation fades away and the millennials and post millennials emerge as much more secular humanist. Christian conservatism in American is a dying breed, although that fact is not yet widely recognized nor accepted.It will be. the rate of social change is staggering; in the last few decades homosexuality has gone from being illegal and punishable by imprisonment to being an accepted way of life, due to decades of social organization by gays and lesbians. White patriarchal society is a thing of the past, and ethnic diversity is now the norm. Humanity is globalized in all areas of life.Christian nationalism can be regarded as the dying gasp of a way of life going extinct, because that is exactly what it is.