Tomorrow is also International Surfing Day. Consequently I’m taking off to the sea for a couple of days, something I would have done today except for a late afternoon meeting. Saturdays are no longer sacred, but that is alright, this allows me different free days, and the returning traffic is more accommodating on Tuesdays.

Tomorrow is also Father’s Day.

We can run,
But we can’t hide from it.
Of all possible worlds,
We only got one:
We gotta to ride on it.
Whatever we’ve done,
We’ll never get far from what we leave behind,
Baby, we can run, run, run, but we can’t hide.

My father (a civil engineer and an architect), dragged us half all the way across the world to live because,whether it was homes or bridges, he believed in environmentally responsible building and construction. All this back in the day when Shell and BP had bought out all the green building supply companies making it too costly for little men, large corporations, or urbanities, to choose the green path. That was brave and I thank him.

My father likes this song.

We Can Run, from The Grateful Dead’s last studio album, Built to Last, originally released on October 31, 1989.

Happy Fathers Day

Peace

From the Pixies Monkey Gone To Heaven, Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, and World Party’s Ship of Fools, to Neil Young’s Vampire Blues, Cat Stevens Where Do the Children Play, and Tracy Chapman’s, Rape of the World, there is a veritable concert to be had of songs written around environmental justice. Feel free to remind me of your favorite. These few I posted to belatedly celebrate the day. Earth day.

I may not have done earth day justice by writing a song, or even a timely blog post, but this past Saturday, after participating in a Run for Congo, I went to a parking lot surrounding a local Home Depot where sat a truckload of composting contraptions. The county had negotiated a forty cents on the dollar deal for a thousand or two Earth Machines. I bought two.

The line was surprisingly long. My eavesdropping skills allowed me to hone in on a secret. Most of the people in line really didn’t know much, if anything, about composting. Good people, at loss as to how to help the earth, wanting to do their part.

Anyone can compost. I live in a small city in a condo, in a building I own, I have some responsibility. Everyone does.

So if you can’t write a song. Compost. Here’s why .

And thank you Marvin Gaye for that beautiful song.

[See post to listen to audio]

My father, a borderline insane conservationist, gave me no choice. From this distance it can’t be disputed that it is was better I didn’t have a choice. Had I been allowed to whine myself out of the trip, by convincing my parents it would psychologically damage me to leave my new found friends, I never would have seen the sights that sooth the soul. Never would have become an avid hiker. The hike was breathtaking, even as a 12 year old I knew power when I saw it. My father, my uncle, my brother, three cousins, and myself saw no one for 8 days, though we saw remnants of people almost every day. It was not easy for a 12 year old. I was the youngest cousin on the hike, but by the 3rd or 4th day I felt the enormity of what was out there. I felt small, yet all the more powerful because of it.

Give your kids some power, take them on a hike in a National Park. There are 400 of them, from Gettysburg to Biscayne, Denali to Acadia. Not all require you to be in Olympic training shape.

Premiering tonight on public telly, Kens Burns, The National Parks: America’s best Idea.

The only country with national parks, though not the only country with protected lands, this film is much of the how and the wherefore of how our National Park System began, who was responsible, and why those responsible felt the way they did. It’s also a reminder of why we need to keep them. It’s presented in a series, took eons to make, and is available on DVD. If you can pull yourself away from crap telly for a few weeks, this is the place to be. I am looking forward to this series, will most likely end up purchasing it. So very few things worth owning these days. Yes?

Reading in what was last weeks Sunday supplement, Burns listed 10 must parks. Denali, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and Glacier National Park, and The Grand Canyon. There are many lists of the top ten, lists of the best ten no one ever goes to and so on and so forth.

How many of our 400 national parks, from the list presented here, have you been to? Which are you favorites?