Gas fracking

My husband and I went out this morning to perform our RadJoy. This is what he wrote about our experience. Here in Butler County, PA we are currently occupied by the armies of the shale-gas industry. My wife and I took off on a tour of places near our home that had been wounded by these armies, sending out the RadJoy Bird to these places from our hearts while searching for a place where we could comfortably perform an actual Earth Exchange.

We came upon such a place unexpectedly while driving down a wooded country road. Suddenly, on both sides of the road, the woodlands were interrupted by a wide, open swath: a natural gas pipeline right-of-way. With the shale-gas boom that is occurring in Pennsylvania, thousands of miles of new pipeline are being laid, crisscrossing the state with 30-foot right-of-ways held in perpetuity by the industry, disrupting forest habitat and forever changing the landscape of our beautiful state. We pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the car, assessed the damage, attuned to the woundedness and got to work creating our RadJoy Birds out of found materials—three of them in all. The whole time we worked the birds were singing beautifully in the remaining woodland. A few white butterflies wandered by for a visit. A ladybug crawled along the wing of one of my wife’s RadJoy Birds. I saw a squirrel scamper across the pipeline swath. Nature is resilient, resistant, defiant…

Another spot we visited was along a nearby state highway where, six months previously, a large diesel generator had sat and run non-stop for several days while they were drilling the bore for a pipeline; we could hear this generator from our house a mile away. Now, to quote a favorite Talking Heads song, “now it’s all covered with flowers…” Nature is resilient, resistant, defiant… Here we did an Earth Exchange also…

We continued on past a recently built natural gas cryogenic processing plant. Just beyond the plant, we spotted two young bucks in a cornfield. They ran at our approach, strong and free, and crossed the road in front of us. Nature is resilient, resistant, defiant…

We also visited a place near my wife’s family home where a beautiful and extensive wooded lot, complete with trails, had recently been leveled. And while the land is being repurposed as a facility for vets returning from war with post-traumatic stress syndrome, I can’t help thinking how much good a walk in the woods would have done to those poor shattered souls… My wife quickly drew the RadJoy Bird in the hard-packed Earth. A couple of “dust devils” (or, as we said, dust angels) rose up in apparent gratitude—ghosts of slaughtered trees fondly remembered… On the edge of the construction site we spotted a tiny oak poking up through the ground. “Ah! Reforestation!” I remarked… Nature is resilient, resistant, defiant… And as we looked out at the construction site we noted a “found” RadJoy Bird, created by the scrapings of backhoes and bulldozers… Adjacent to this site is a cemetery, where we had parked in the shade of a mature hemlock. While gazing at a patch of clover in the cemetery lawn, we saw what we had so been longing to see: a pair of honeybees—the first honeybees we’d seen in months… Nature is resilient, resistant, defiant… And, to quote a favorite bumper sticker: Nature bats last… Joseph McMurry

I’ve also attached some photos from our day! One RadJoy bird turned into a ritual device that was positioned on the guardrail… much like the spontaneous memorials that people build along highways. Blessings to you for the good work you do!