Puncturevine, or what I call Biker's Bane, summer Eagle Valley [ click photo for next . . . ]
(Tribulus terrestris, member of the Zygophyllaceae or Caltrop family)
Prostrate terrorist of invasive weeds, Biker's Bane produces a
prodigious number of spiny burs that can easily penetrate even
mountain bike tires protected with double layers of kevlar.
If you are on a dry, sandy, unpaved road, between 300 to 3000
feet of elevation, it is best to know that you are squarely in
the domain of Tribulus horibulus, and a flat is only a single,
tiny puncturevine bur away...
Below is a video of a scientific invasives symposium. It
is, of cource, a bit academic. But it is also, I think,
interesting both in terms of content—AND—most especially
in terms of the tacit underlying ways of thinking, language,
and worldview. ENJOY!
WATCHING: Invasive Species Symposium http://bit.ly/12oGXPq
Caluerpa taxifolia & Yellow Star Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis)
#weeds
On the road in the American Northwest.
NATIVE PLANTS?
A weed is a species of movement
which FEEDS on CHAOS &
ROOTS in IMBALANCE.
The idea of "WAR ON WEEDS"
is itself a "weed."
FOUR MORE METAPHYSICAL MINIATURES
(i)
We shape the world and the world shapes us.
Have you ever noticed how by now even presidents hold a
microphone as if they are were hosting the Tonight Show?
Or how presidents now patronize members of the media
by using their first names at press conferences. They are
supposed to be buddies, one understands, and a buddy
would never be too critical of a friend, now, would he
or she?
(ii)
We shape the world and world shapes us.
The universal commercialization of discourse is
the bane of real dialogue.
We don't take a crook seriously when he demands the keys
to the bank, the safe's combination, and free gas for the
getaway car. So why do we listen seriously to the highly-trained
spokespeople of fantastically moneyed, vested interests?
Truth and clear reasoning do not begin with conclusions
intended to greenwash our brains into a deep soporific state,
hoping thereby to gain permanent access to some resource,
or maintain some profitable status quo. Truth and clear
reasoning begin with real problems, real listening,
contradictions, troubling facts, and above all, with honest,
civil, disinterested debate.
(iii)
We shape the world and the world shapes us.
Who was the first man to look straight into the lens of a camera
and lie to the whole world without the slightest trace of remorse?
Was it President Johnson? Nixon?
No, it must have been the first soap commerical.
Or the first rockstar singing about a lost love
that never happened.
Now, even children do it.
(iv)
Ws shape the world and the world shapes us.
Putting a young person behing the wheel of a car turns the
key on an equally powerful, self-reinforcing, set of illusions:
of control, of freedom, of independence.
How different is the reality that no one wishes to see, as the car
itself takes control of our thought and perception, or bank account,
and as the illision of independence begins to flounder as we
discover we have chained our souls to the sinking ship of a
quickly disappearing resource, one which is harmful not only to
ourselves, but also to all those around us.
Reason enough to pause in a moment of quiet reflection
before turning the key.
Camp Lost & Found,
Eagle Cap Wilderness,
Oregon, VIII.17.2008
FIREWEED POEMS please preview
[opens in new window]
