~*~
A couple days ago I read a post I'd written in 2015. It was about the suffering exacted by polyradiculitis, including the terrifying, earth-sucking heaviness and the extreme weakness I once constantly battled. I no longer experience the terrifying heaviness. It gradually lightened (an apropos word for the context) after I added Charlotte's Web Hemp Extract in June, 2015. (Charlotte's Web became legal for North Carolina in May, 2015.)
While I dealt with the debilitating heaviness in my body, I became more aware of the presence of birds. The birds' lightness helped lift my spirit at times. Still does.
This past Thursday as I rode my bike on the Mt. Airy Greenway, a flock of about fifty robins were feasting from the soil in a large field beside the Greenway. It rained a lot this past week so earthworms at the ground level have been abundant. As I cycled by, the robins scattered to the tree tops.
I felt gratitude toward those robins and other birds, as I often do these days, especially when I ride the Greenway and they escort me along.
Later that same Thursday, in the evening, I continued my reading of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring. Just so happened that the chapter next up for me, And No Birds Sing, includes studies and observations regarding DDT and earthworms and robins. I read that worms ingested the soil which contained DDT from run-off or direct spraying. Then robins ingested the worms. Then the robins died or became infertile, in devastating proportions. Of course, robins weren't the only lives to suffer and DDT wasn't the only chemical culprit.
The robins I had seen earlier that Thursday came to mind. I had to pause and just sit with that image from earlier in the day, and the reality of it. I hope to never take songbirds for granted.
As I lay in bed on Friday morning and listened to the chorus of songbirds outside my bedroom window, I was thankful and pensive. I thought to the birds, You sing to honor Rachel. Never stop.
~*~
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| 1950s advertisement |
In Silent Spring Carson compiled studies and observations from herself and others into one book, bringing it all together in one place. The book was published in 1962. The Environmental Protection Agency was founded in 1970. The use of DDT was cancelled in 1972. Rachel Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.
Thank god, or the universe or whatever, that Rachel spoke up and that President Kennedy launched federal and state investigations into Carson's claims. If that had not happened, we would probably be living in a gray and desolate wasteland.
DDT is still found in human and animal breast milk; it's persistent. That said, compared with its alternatives, breast milk is still the best food for babies. DDT is not the only poison that we carry inside our bodies.(2004 article)
I wonder how these residual toxins affect our generations to come? Could some modern physical and psychological illnesses be a response to these residues? My gut says, yes. But sometimes my gut is wrong. I'm sure there are articles on the subject.
Toxins within us include heavy metals, an intimate subject for me. My own body has dealt with mercury toxicity in the past and is currently dealing with cobalt and chromium toxicity.
For our planet and its wildlife and nature and humanity, Rachel Carson is a heroine.
PBS American Experience Rachel Carson
~*~
Big Yellow Taxi
Written 1970 by Joni Mitchell
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
~*~
3 comments:
I am so glad you are getting some relief. Also, it was very interesting to read what you wrote about SILENT SPRING and Rachel Carson. I remember when the spray trucks spraying DDT would come through the neighborhood when I was young. Many of the kids in the neighborhood would dance in the spray behind the truck. Thankfully, my mother had better sense. She closed all the windows in the house (this was before air conditioning) and made all three of us kids come in.
SP
Thanks SP!
I ran behind those trucks, along with the neighborhood kids. "It's the bug truck!"
I think "Silent Spring" should be required reading for every representation in congress. I'm reading a 2002 copyright which includes an introduction written in 2002. That introduction alone speaks volumes. It was written by Linda Lear, an author and historian. Lear wrote a biography about Carson that is now on my reading list.
I've simply been floored reading about the havoc manifested in the 1950s. I had no idea it was as big as it was.
The PBS documentary paints an excellent picture to understand the context of how it all came about and received support. But then, the long-term effects began to emerge, and it wasn't pretty at all.
Further thought...they weren't really long-term effects. It only took a few years of heavy doses.
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