I will be screening clips and speaking about this work-in-progress BEHOLD THE EARTH on Sunday at 2:45pm, at the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. Please come if you are in the Washington area this weekend and curious to learn what the production is all about.

The talk and screening is part of the US Environmental Film Festival, in its 18th year. For those of you who are enthusiasts for films about the people/nature connection, there are 155 diverse films screening between March 16th and 28th. Special programs exist for children and are marked by a family-friendly symbol in the festival program.

Posted on March 16th, 2010 in Christians, Educators, Environmentalists, Indie Film, Neo-Traditional Music, Parents, Scientists, Uncategorized

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I’ve been in Tierra del Fuego these past two weeks, the “land of fire,” with the opportunity to capture time-lapse footage. Each day amidst moody and wind-whipped clouds, the sun moves slowly across the sky. If those clouds were not so constantly spitting water, this place is one where you could lie on your back and look up and about forever, like Ishmael strapped to the masthead. Instead, you savor the sun when it shows, wipe the lens that is measuring all this light, and dry out later near the fire in the company of friends. More on time-lapse in the next post. In the 1800’s nearby Cape Horn was the mid-point on the long arc of a sea voyage from America’s east coast to its west coast.

Posted on February 24th, 2010 in

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A remarkable story caught my attention this morning on the radio, having to do with a child’s vision and the American withdrawal from nature that has occurred over the last 30 years. Not vision in the “visionary” sort of context, but literally how human eyesight is formed during childhood. Over the past 30 years, nearsightedness has increased 66% for Americans between the age of 12 and 54. Increased amounts of near-work activities like watching TV and playing video games would appear to be the culprit. But no. Apparently we are more nearsighted because children spend less time outdoors. To have vision, a child must spent time outdoors. Why? The best working hypothesis by Dr. Don Mutti (of the College of Optometry at the Ohio State University) is that there is something about directly experiencing outdoor light as a child that is critical to the health of human eyesight. Intriguing! For more check out a research article by Susan Vitale and others in last month’s Archives of Opthamology

Posted on January 11th, 2010 in

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Beholding the earth in November and early December has become a chilly task here on the Maine coast.

Especially for my son Will. He stuck his fingers deep into the soil of the garden and successfully dug out this spectacular parsnip for the Thanksgiving table.

Passed my local dragonfly consultant Bob Grobe on November 23rd in the market parking lot. He reported a sighting -on the previous day- of a male Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum) dragonfly basking in the sun along the Megunticook River, despite the 48 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. It may be a record for the last living dragon in these parts!

November is a restless month. I often recall that this is the month that inspired Melville’s Ishmael to leave the farm in the late 1800’s and head to sea.

Posted on December 4th, 2009 in Environmentalists, Parents, Scientists

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Lately, I’ve found myself noticing the “layers” of the outdoors. Like the accumulated rippling form of a tree fungus in my photograph below. Or a sea shell’s calcifications. Or the rings of a recently cut white pine tree trunk. Ring around ring. Leaf by leaf. Layered like pages of a book. I never really thought about reading the natural world -literally and figuratively- like a book, until I spoke with Cal DeWitt. His two-books theology refers to his two most significant books. One is the Bible. The other is what he calls “the book of Creation.” He spoke to me of the peat that lies at the base of his marsh. Layers upon layers of peat, like pages of a book stretching back in time, recording the stories of history. Each page to be read and studied in much the same way he studies the bible, chapter and verse. Unlike Cal, for me the pages of Creation are not directly connected to the pages of the Bible other than through the people who have discovered, considered, and sustained rich meaning in both. I want to learn more about this meaning, an integral part of American identity with layers all of its own. How is it part of our divorce -and our connection- with the outdoors in the past, present, and future?

Posted on November 11th, 2009 in Christians, Environmentalists, Scientists

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