Earth Day

Despite the foot of heavy wet snow that landed on us Saturday, and 3 more inches last night, and the forecast for six more tomorrow, it is April and spring weather is bound to happen any day. Right?  Any woodcock brave enough to get this far will find over two feet of snow on their singing grounds so I hope they hold off for awhile.

Still, we are all hopeful so I sent off a few early Happy Earth Day messages from my phone today while I was supposed to be working. I couldn’t send out to everyone but I enjoyed the replies. There were a couple of references to hippies, one hallelujah, and even one sort of bah-humbuggy. Well, I’m not usually a humbug sort of guy and there’s not many who would see me and say “look at that hippie!” but I can yell “hoorah!” with the best of them. It’s hard not to like Earth Day because most all of us appreciate the planet we live on. No one has found a better place, yet. It’s easy to take it for granted but as far as I can tell we’d all have a hell of a time if we had to leave tomorrow.

Here on the Range it can be kind of tricky to endorse any kind of support for clean air, pure water, and healthy soil lest we be labeled “environmentalists.” It is, I've heard, the environmentalists who would eliminate our jobs and kick us all out so this part of Minnesota could become a park for the rich. Or something like that.

Forty-five years ago there were rivers in this country that would and actually did catch on fire. That’s about when the green movement started, though it wasn’t such a catch-phrase until recently. If some kind of movement hadn’t started where would we be now?

I’m not an extremist but I do get along with Mother Nature. She’s a fine and beautiful lady and many of the best parts of my life have taken place close to her. I’ll bet your’s have, too. So I took some time today and smiled at the clear sky and enjoyed a couple of deep, clean breaths of unfiltered air. I’m happy to be able. The official Earth Day is still a couple of weeks away, and I hope you enjoy it. It’s an easy day to celebrate, after all – you don’t have to buy gifts, dress up, or have relatives over. I know not everyone believes in watching out for the environment, but c’mon, it’s about the only thing we really do need.