Family Reunion

Well, here’s my story with some pictures. Probably seems strange indeed to behold all of what follows as being in the name of Global Earth Exchange. The date fell on a long-established weekend for my wife’s family reunion, which was to be held at Deep Creek Lake, an beautiful and popular recreational park in Western Maryland. I wondered how I could both join with Global Earth Exchange and be present to and with the family. Then it occurred to me that while many forms and practices in the neglect and abuse of the earth are overt and without concern for the health of our home, as life would have it, it isn’t always that clear and simple.

Here I was, with my family; in many ways good people all. So when enthusiasm grew for a day of boating and play on the water, I chose to be with them, camera and all. These pictures may seem most strange to be sending in response to your call for sharing my engagement in such a special day for honoring the earth even as she bears her wounds; however, the experience has spurred my thinking and more especially my questioning. I can stand aghast at the pictures of oil coating the feathers of pelicans as it washes up on their gulf shores. I can look with horror at the video accounts of radioactivity spilling into the ocean off the coast of Japan (and even as I write, the media appears postured in a crouch, waiting and ready to pounce at the first hint of the spectacular, were waters or raging fire to win out over the efforts to maintain the safety of our nuclear power plants.

But what about a family reunion, and joining the traffic jam of boats and other gas-driven vehicles of recreation as they surge through the waters of Deep Creek Lake? I come away from Global Earth Exchange with questions. I bring back with me the sobering awareness that until I begin to behold the large and sometimes grotesque expressions of earth neglect and abuse as mirrors into which I must gaze to begin recognizing my own responsibility for both destruction and healing, I have not truly begun my work. I suppose I could title this letter: “Global Earth Exchange and A Family Reunion: Where Do I Go From Here?”