What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Sometimes I find myself wondering about God's sense of humor.  In the last two weeks I've found (or been found by) dozens of childhood friends who (I thought) had disappeared from my life forever.  It's been great hearing from these folks again...and sad to find some folks have gone to their rest. 

For all those folks who're here and those gone on I post this link to the Grateful Dead in concert at the Aarhus University (Denmark), 4/16/72, playing Truckin' (cut #5), which includes the line "lately I've been thinking what a long, strange trip it's been...."

Amen.

This Year's Experiment: Square Foot Gardening

Having tried various gardening methods in the past, I've decided to try Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening" method in the backyard garden this year.  It has its strengths and weaknesses (like everything) but the features which most interest me are:

• Emphasis on intense, square foot based plantings
• Diverse varieties side by side to confuse potential pests and encourage companionability
• Minimum watering required due to the recommended soil mix (1/3 compost, 1/3 sphagnum moss, 1/3 vermiculite) without a chance of overwatering
• No digging - square foot frame is placed on top of weedblock and filled with the soil mix to a depth of 6 inches (12 inches for particularly deep rooted crops)
• Training vining plants for vertical growth saving garden surface for greens and bush type veggies

You can read more about the method at http://www.squarefootgardening.com/.  If you've had experience with this method I'd be interested in hearing from you.  I'll be posting information as the year progresses - wish me luck!

Words are Things

Funny how phrases are often understood one way when they may have multiple meanings.  I was thinking about this following the assasssination attempt in Arizona and calls for toning down the bombastic rhetoric used in political and social discourse on talk radio. 

It's true, free speech and civility are not synonymous.  One of the quickest ways to garner attention is to engage in hyperbolic bombast using rhetorical art to demean and diminish opponents.  Of course, there's no guarantee that the attention you earn will be positive.  And there's also the matter of culpability for what you say.  I acknowledge folks have the right, the inalienable right, to their opinions and expression of the same no matter how deluded, criminal, or moronic I might believe them to be. 

But I also hold to the idea that words are things - words have power and are not morally or ethically neutral.  They are quite capable of inciting action: ask any advertiser, psychologist, or politician.  And inasmuch as folks who hold bully pulpits like to take credit when folks behave in positive ways that confirm the speakers' arguments, they must also be held accountable for negative results and tragedies that arise when they pollute the airways in uncivil ways.  Fair is, after all, fair - true?