Once shared a wooded homestead with a handful of creatures all of which wanted to be as close to me as I would allow, or so I thought. There on the forested ten acre edge of a pond with goats, Bantam chickens, two Belgian mares, and a few Toulouse geese, I lived in a ten by twelve one room tar-paper shack my father and I had erected one weekend. Completely ‘off-grid’ as is said these days. A shaded spring, source to the pond and my drinking water, an outhouse, an old wood cookstove, a candelabra, one window, a smattering of non-threatening wildlife — except of course for the neighbors over the hill — I was supremely happy even as I was poor and impatient.

Nature, and humanity’s better interactions with her; that combination does hold the best and I think only answers for a good and fertile society. As for the planet and its future health, it is pretty darned obvious she doesn’t need us anymore than she needed the dinosaurs. Wouldn’t it be magical and even divine if the societies of man could attain a plain of conduct and stewardship which would have us all be an invigorant and bejewelment for our Earth? A future essential?