Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Queen’s Chronicles: TIME TO PLANT TREES

Lately I’ve seen several outrageous television commercials that blithely extol the benefits of throwaway dust rags and floor mops and disposable baby bibs, of all things. Apparently the landfills are not yet filled to over-flowing capacity with pampers as I had assumed. As it is, every American uses an average of 4-6 trees a year on paper goods, wood products, and newsprint.

Knowing myself to be a concerned citizen and certified Queen of Reducing, Re-using and Recycling, I feel morally indignant in the face of such crass waste. The mere sight of The New York Sunday Times stacked in high piles at the newsstand fills me with queasy guilt. Heaven forbid I should buy one. I take my own bags to the grocery. I use cloth napkins and hankies and refuse to use paper towels. I’m the one who used the same paper bag for 65 days worth of coffees-to-go.

All well and good, but what have I done lately? What did I do today?
This is an important distinction: what did I do versus what did I not do. The issue is not how many trees did I save, but how many trees did I plant? I am 62-years old. That means that I should have planted 250-350 trees by now to replace those that I have used. While I have conducted quite a few tree-planting ceremonies over the years, I still owe the earth a new orchard, at least.

Maybe it is self-defeating to think that we should be giving up comforts and luxuries in order to be more environmentally correct and connected. Such negative terminology doesn’t make acting conscientiously seem like a very attractive prospect, but rather like some sort of deprivation that would appeal only to martyrs. That’s just bad psychology. Unproductive. The medicine does not have to taste bad in order to work well.

Perhaps it is more fruitful to think not of giving something up, but of giving something back. It is the most elemental and universal rule of etiquette that if you take something, you put it back; if you use something, you replace it — plus some. While saving and conserving are admirable virtues to be commended and encouraged, being generous and proactively responsive is equally crucial to our survival, body and soul. Take less. Give more.

It is pay back time. So I pledge to plant trees this Spring. As many as I can. Won’t you join me?

Let’s plant trees everywhere. In our gardens, inside our houses, throughout our parks and school-yards. Even those of us who live in the most crowded cement cities can join a community garden or participate in a park clean-up and planting day.

We can “buy” acres of rain forest to give as gifts or have trees planted in honor of all the special occasions celebrated by friends and family. We could adopt a neighborhood or a stretch of highway and help take care of it. Like a brigade of Green Guerilla Queens, we could spread out and scatter wildflower seeds in every vacant lot, strip, mall and avenue median. Just like Queen Lady Bird did.

With best vernal blessings,

xxQMD

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Queen’s Chronicles: TO ALL WHO HAVE BEEN BORN OF MOTHERS

Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War,
as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who
had lost their sons.

The following is the original Mother's Day Proclamation
written by Julia Ward Howe in Boston, 1870:

"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have heart,
whether our baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly:
'We will not have our great questions decided by irrelevant
agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with
carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken
from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be
too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be
trained to injure theirs.'

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women without limits of nationality
may be appointed and held at some place deemed most
convenient and at the earliest period consider with its objects
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the
amicable settlement of international questions, the great and
general interests of peace."

Let us take her eloquent plea for peace to heart. In the name
of all the mothers all through time beginning with the creatrix
Mother Goddesses and in the interest of our precious Mother Earth,
let us lend our voice, our time, our money, our energy and our
passion to the cause of peace on the planet.

xxYour Mama Donna

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Queen’s Chronicles: TIME FLIES

I can’t believe that I didn't post at all last month. Where did April go? The weeks and months, it seems, just melted into each other. But each day seemed endless.

Last week I bumped into my neighbors Time and Andrea as I was out walking Poppy in the morning and they were leaving for work. We stood around talking for a few minutes, and then we each proceeded with our day. It was a long and tiring day — for me, at least. Filled with work and play, spirit and pleasure.

Late that same evening, I was out with the dog and once again saw Tim and Andrea as they were getting home from work, dinner, and a couple of sets at a music club. Again, we hung around and chatted. I said something like, “When I saw you guys last week…” And Tim said, “that was this morning!”

How could that be? It seemed like forever ago. Time is such a slippery scoundrel. It is impossible to pin it down long enough to grab hold of it. It just keeps slithering away.

Time is a paradox, at once temporary and permanent, external and internal, objective and subjective. And it is so confusing. Days that are weeks long and filled with 10,000 things. Weeks, which seem like seconds, fleeting and ephemeral.

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that's relativity."
-Albert Einstein

Time flies and time stands still. Time passes, but is forever. Time creates. Time maintains. Time destroys. I save time, I waste time, I keep time, I lose time, I kill time, I make time, I take time out.

Time is a sneak thief, hell bent on racing toward my mortality, so I will do all I can to outsmart it by savoring every precious moment, by being conscious, focused, and conscientious in each second. By being here now.

Blessings of eternity,

xxMama Donna