Archive: August 2011

View part I here. By the 19th century the Western world was busily developing a mechanistic view of life. No doubt many culprits contributed to the undoing of Mother Nature but one character worthy of attention is Baron Justus von Liebig. Justus von Liebig – Image courtesy of Wikipedia In around 1840 von Liebig invented […]

Sunday, August 28th, I an scheduled to appear on comedian Dobie Maxwell’s radio show, The Mothership Connection, on Kenosha station WLIP, 1050 on the AM dial. The show can be streamed live at www.wlip.com. The show runs from 8 pm to midnight and I’m expecting to be on around 9 pm. Dobie and I have […]

Some millions of years ago there were plants on the earth and animals resembling nothing like a human being. Nature had made the rule early on that life would occur in a constant cycle with death. That which died would nurture the soil and that which pooped, the animals, would nurture the plants and the […]

For more years than I care to admit I grew hybrid this and hybrid that and engaged in the competitive garden pastimes of How Big is Your tomato,huh? How many pounds yield did you get, huh? Out of how many square feet, buddy, huh? And then as I grew older so did the games and […]

Frowning at my garden, the only stodgy, grumbly neighbor I have says, “Why do you grow all that stuff when you could just go to the grocery store?” Because, when I step outside there’s no grocery store but there is a garden. Of course I don’t think to say this until weeks after the neighbor’s […]

Karma is often thought of as retribution for past ill deeds you’ve committed. Say you forgot to speak with your God this morning and as a consequence you decide to steal the tin box where Grandpa keeps all his money. This is easy to do since you know where he hides the box and to […]

Several years ago I gave a speech titled “Open All Doors, Take from All Sources,” in which I encouraged my audience to embrace Life in all its fullness. The speech didn’t go over, either because they might have thought I was talking about opening all doors and robbing people blind, or because the audience had […]

There are two general lines of thought about how a garden should be kept. One way has everything planted in rows, neatly spaced so that no plant imposes itself on another, everything orderly and under control. This is the way most of us go about gardening. Then there’s the way nature does it. I don’t […]

There are a lot of things in my life that I regard as important. From spouse to friends and family, to writing, to videography, to making things, to reading, to movies, to laughter, to healthy food, to holistic healing, to walking, and more. I pay attention to personal hygiene, too, but if you ask my […]