It Is Us I Am Afraid Of

I hear the branches screaming. She had woken up with night terrors.

He held her close. You mean you hear the wind screaming through the trees.

No, it’s like I said the first time. I am afraid for them. She was still shaking.

You don’t have to be afraid of them. Hopefully, he thought, she will fall asleep again soon.

No, it’s like I said the first time. It’s us I am afraid of.

Us? You and I? He held her closer.

No, ALL of us. We can be so oblivious. Her breathing deepened.

But he couldn’t sleep.

What Is Happening to the Trees?

The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago… had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands. …………..~ Havelock Ellis from The Dance of Life, 1923 They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers. …………..~ James G. Watt, quoted in Newsweek, 8 March 1982 Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them. …………..~ Bill Vaughn Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea. …………..~ George Carlin We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap. …………..~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. …………..~ Ansel Adams

P.S. How serendipitous that I wrote this unaware that Edvard Munch’s The Scream set a world art auction record, selling for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York today.

In a page in his diary headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the painting:

I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused,  feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

#screaming #TheScream #nightterrors #afraid #CWWOL20120502 #trees #sleep #predatory #AnselAdams #KurtVonnegut #wind #Jr #HavelockEllis #GeorgeCarlin #EdvardMunch #JamesGWatt #BillVaughn #branches