the day before tomorrow

Ann told me a horrible story today of a man in the New Orleans area. He is "camping" at his home, with power from a generator he somehow bought, guarding his home from marauding bands of looters...Is this insanity? I can hardly take this in!

Richard Bell usually allows his charming aware drawings of his natural world do most of the "talking", but here, where he talks about stars, Orangemen, the Book, Heaven and Earth, there is pain in his observations of our human behaviors. I take hope from that, in that the more we talk about these issues and share our concern, perhaps our actions will be more thoughtful.

I wonder, as we wave our precious flags, revere our holy books and fiercely
guard our ancestral rights if we ever really see the wonderful, sustaining world
around us.
I don't think we do, or we wouldn't treat each other like we do
and we wouldn't treat the Earth as we do. It seems as if the natural world is
taken for granted as a stage set for the more interesting things that we humans
get embroiled in.