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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Theory of consolation

Picking up trash at Trinny Cove, 7 June 2008 (Graham Openshaw photo)

I read Alison's blog post earlier, on the abstraction of nature. That is, as a society, we disconnect ourselves from and sacrifice nature for the almighty buck.

Yesterday, the first full day of spring, dropped a present of ~25 cms snow, freezing rain and wind on us.

I thought, hey, I can console myself on two fronts with a picture Graham took of the pile of trash we collected in Trinny Cove in June of last year.

Trinny Cove is a small cove open to the south in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, and because of its exposure, the prevailing southwesterly winds blow a lot of flotsam and jetsam onto the beach. Some of the garbage is innocent enough but a lot of it was just discarded without concern for where it would wash up. Four of us (and another group at another location) spent a day putting the garbage in bags for later pick up by the Department of Fisheries. I can't control what everyone else does but I can be responsible for myself and make a small contribution as I did that day. That's one down.

As far as the snow goes, the weather is oblivious to the calendar. We've decided spring begins when the sun crosses the vernal equinox but that's only an indication of the trend the weather will take. For me its more a day when I can start thinking about doing other non-winter things. The day we were at Trinny Cove was a beautiful day and I know more days like it are on the way this year. That's two!

I don't know if that's rationalization or consolation - take your pick. Either way I feel better.

Tony :-)

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