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.

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?

We achieved decent results with the RED camera, and its maximum frame record rate of 120/ sec. I am looking to bump this frame up to 1,000 or more, when we have access to dragonflies again. At this latitude, we are well past that point. Our next dragonfly shoot will be with a PHANTOM camera and lots of sun. We now know our subject. More from Cal DeWitt on the dragonflies of his marsh in the next post.

Often, in a consideration of America’s future relationship with nature, environmentalists are prone to evoke today’s children, and even the children yet-to-be-born. I’ve heard comments like “What will the future earth look like?” or “Think of the children.” The follow-up question of “what to think” about those children, of “what to think” about those yet-to-be-born is not often explored nor expressed. Theo Colborn does it. And in the clip below, Carl Safina takes this question of “what to think of the unborn” head on.

Ever consider the meaning of the word creation? What does it mean to you? I asked this question of Cal DeWitt, who considers its meaning in the context of his faith. His reply in the video clip below. I’ve also asked the question of E.O. Wilson, and most recently of Carl Safina, who each replied in the context of their secular world-view. Safina’s reply will be featured in my next blog entry.