Alina's Adventures

Shrooming with the kids in Alabama: Identifying sample #1.

We divide our field survey of shrooms into "samples" for the purpose of identifying them once we got home and we able to to consult a few online resources. Unfortunately, we currently lack a field guide to the world of the fungi. But we make do.

Sample #1: "The Pretty-In-Pinks"

Cap was red on top and slightly upturned. The stem was white with no ring.The cap was a light red wash- almost pink- with a soft, velvety texture. We agreed the shape of the cap was umbilicate- the edge was flat and recessed in the center, almost like a bathing pool for fairies. 

This pretty-in-pink sample boasted a obvious striate margin (another way of saying it had a lined edge). 

As I used a twig to flip over the cap, we agreed the stalk was centrally positioned. Unfortunately, our flipping method did not allow us to get a sense of the shape of the stalk's base. We could only speculate that it might have been equal.

But the underside of the cap revealed a large number of crowded cream-colored gills.

The attachment of the gills to the stalk was "free" (or not attached). Max claimed the white ring in the center made this "obvious". We concluded that it would be accurate to say them stem was white with no ring.

According to David Fischer, gilled mushrooms, or agarics, have evolved at least four or five times according to DNA study results.

This particular manifestation of the phenomenon of convergent evolution has repeated itself because each spore has an exceedingly slim chance of germinating at the right time in the right place—and two sexually compatible spores have to germinate in proximity to one another in order for mating to occur. In order to be successful, each species has to successfully compete against numerous other species for habitat. 

Fischer says the gills keep evolving because they "provide the highest surface-area-to-mass ratio for the external production of spores". 

When we broke open the middle, we discovered whitish cream spores. 

Identification 

The white gills and red/white color combination suggests a mushroom in the Russula genus. But which one?

Option 1: Russula rosea

Also known as the Rosy brittlegill, Russula rosea fruits in late October and early November, depending on the temperature of the location. The cap is red or pink, often cream towards the centre; sometimes entirely cream; dry, either shiny or matt, sometimes slightly powdered. 5 to 12cm diameter, convex, later flattening or developng a slight central depression. 

The gills are a pale cream color, almost freely attached; forked; very brittle. It maintains a mycorrhizal association with deciduous broadleaf trees, particularly Beech, but occasionally also found under conifers.

Option 2: Russula emetica

This option came up only because I read a possible ID of a mushroom almost identical to our Pretty-in-Pinks that called it a Russila emetica. First described in 1774, the "sickener" has a wide distribution in North America, where it thrives in damp woodlands in a mycorrhizal association with conifers, especially pine trees. Alas, this species is poisonous and likely to cause stomach distress. 

Option 3: Russula betularum

Russula betularum is a small, very pale member of the Russula (brittlegills) genus of mushrooms. It is usually white to very pale pink, inedible, and grows with birch trees. It is commonly known as the birch brittlegill.

Russula (Wikipedia)
List of Russula species (Wikipedia)
 Russula rosea (First Nature)
Russula emetica, the sickener (First Nature)
Russula nobilis, the beechwood sickener (First Nature)

25 extraordinary people from Alabama for whom I am thankful this Thanksgiving.

The first of 25 extraordinary people from Alabama who made a difference

I am thankful for people who give chunks of their lives out of love and concern for others. In creating this list, I aimed to skip over the sentimental, day-to-day thanks and head straight for the gray matter. Forgive my lack of attention to formal titles- none of these people would be any less significant without added titles and degrees. Their contributions surpass any professional accomplishments to which they may lay claim.

These twenty-five exquisite human beings inspired me, educated me, and gave me the courage to do more than aim for the perfect lawn or household appliances.

In no particular order, here's the first of my twenty-five extraordinary people of Alabama.... The remainder will follow in the coming weeks as I look over the past year and make plans for the year that lies ahead.

1. FAYA ORA ROSE TOURE

Faya Ora Rose Touré is a Harvard-educated Civil Rights activist and litigation attorney who has worked on some of the highest-profile civil rights cases to come before the courts. Touré—who spent most of her career as Rose Sanders until she decided to step away from her "slave name" in 2003—was the first African-American female judge in Alabama and was part of the winning legal team in Pigford vs. Veneman, the largest civil rights case in history. This case led to the payment of a billion dollars in damages to black farmers by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, Touré is founder of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama, and a founding partner in the law firm of Chestnut, Sanders, Sanders, Pettaway & Campbell, LLC. She uses her many talents to further her message and is a prolific songwriter and playwright, as well as the host of a weekly radio show, Faya's Fire.

Touré was born Rose M. Gaines on May 20, 1945, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Her parents, the Rev. D. A. Gaines and Ora Lee Gaines, taught their six children to conserve so they would have something in life to give back to their community. Training the children by word and deed, Rev. Gaines didn't always adhere to protocol, but he got the job done. "He was a trained minister who didn't always fit the image of what society expected," Touré said in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). She notes similar traits in her own personality. Touré has the courage to follow her own drumbeat. She speaks frankly on controversial matters of race, injustice, and education, but said in her CBB interview, "I'm not fearless. I just won't let others define me."

Here mother Ora Lee's ways have rubbed off on Touré as well. For 30 years Ora Lee's strength and support helped Touré run the McRae Learning Center, a private community school Touré founded in 1976 to raise children's reading levels. "My mother made the greatest contribution to that school as she traveled back and forth from Birmingham for over 30 years," Touré told CBB. "People always approach me to say how much my mother's work helped their kids. We had them reading at 3 and 4 years old. Many were starting in the 27th percentile. We raised the level to the 74th percentile. We know the kids' greatness. I'd like to see other schools around the country do the same. That's the challenge."

Touré's community work began at an early age when she organized kids in the neighborhood. Through her teens, however, she remained unsure about what she wanted to do with her life. After graduation from George Clem High School in 1962 she entered Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1966. Still unsure where her career path would take her, she completed a law degree at Harvard in 1969 and was awarded the Herbert Smith Fellowship. That led to an assignment the following year at the National Welfare Rights Organization and the Columbia Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law. In 1971 she worked briefly for the Legal Services Corporation, and opened the law firm of Chestnut, Sanders, Sanders, Pettaway & Campbell, LLC the following year along with her husband, Alabama State Senator Henry Sanders. In 1973 Touré became the first African-American female judge in Alabama, serving as municipal judge until 1977. In 1982 Touré was hired by the Emergency Land Fund for the Department of the Agriculture to conduct a study of black land tenure and document land loss by African Americans.

Through the years Touré's legal skills led her to several major cases. In one important case she teamed with noted attorney Johnnie Cochran to seek reparations from corporations who profited from slavery. Seeking academic reparations for African-American students for what she calls "400 years of miseducation and discrimination" is one of Touré's latest projects. She is also preparing a case on behalf of black women who suffered sexual abuse during slavery. It challenges current laws that, Touré said, "do not offer equal justice from sexual assaults and misconduct towards black women." 

Touré's day job never kept her away from her extensive community work. In 1982 she co-founded the Black Belt Arts and Cultural Center, an arts-based community organizing group. She founded the National Voting Rights Museum in 1993 to tell the story of the Voting Rights Movement and founded the Bridge Crossing Jubilee in 1965 to commemorate the Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She co-founded the Coalition of Alabamians Reforming Education (C.A.R.E.) in 1993. In the 1990s Touré spearheaded a movement against the practice of "tracking" in Selma public schools, a controversial system that can limit education and career opportunities. Touré founded the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement in 1985. The group educates young people about the political process and encourages their involvement. It has chapters around the United States and in Mali and Senegal, West Africa.

Mothers of Many (MOMS), a group Touré founded for low-income women, has opened three businesses under Touré's direction. Touré founded the Replacing Inequities in School with Excellence Network (R.I.S.E.). Their mission is to fight the practice of tracking and work for better education nationwide. She co-founded the Africans in America Renaissance Project. The organization provides land for purchase and development by African Americans in South Africa. Touré also founded MAAT Leadership High, an all-male school.(Source)

Faya Rose Toure spent this past Tuesday night in an Alabama jail for trying to speak out against the city of Selma's decision to donate land for a monument to General Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

After losing the Battle of Selma, Forrest returned to Tennessee and resumed his successful business activities. Along the way he also helped to organize the Ku Klux Klan. Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans view Forrest as a hero of the first order, a brave leader known as the "Wizard of the Saddle." Critics say "wizard" was an apt description, as in Grand Wizard of the Klan.

For those unsure of what the Bedford monument represents, Occidental Dissident speaks fairly clearly for his supporters. Responding to Toure and others, he says that "Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest is best remembered for the manner in which he dealt with the Black Undertow". He elaborates: 

How would the real Nathan Bedford Forrest have dealt with the likes of Al Sharpton and Faya Rose Toure? Would he have responded to such an insult like Connie Chastain or the Virginia Flaggers in Richmond? White Southerners can learn a lot from Nathan Bedford Forrest. Foremost among these lessons is how we should have responded to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.

Note: If there had been more Nathan Bedford Forrests and fewer Connie Chastains in the last generation, Selma wouldn’t be an uninhabitable Black Undertow city today.

The loss of this bronze bust of Forrest is less important than the loss of Selma, Dallas County, and the whole Black Belt region to White people, not to mention Birmingham, because MLK succeeded in getting the Voting Rights Act shoved down our throats.

It's hard not to cringe when I read this. In the same way that the statues of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu were offensive to Romanians that lost friends, family, and hope under his totalitarian regime, a monument to Gen. Forrest should not be housed in a public space. If a man wants to build a monument to a person who used his power and authority to oppress other human beings, he should do so in the privacy of his own home or backyard. No one should be forced to participate in this particular fetishization of historic nastiness.

After the revolutions of 1989, Romanians removed all monuments to Ceausescu. Residents of Selma should ensure that no monuments to vulgar racists are funded and erected in the first place.

 

The spirit of Selma is alive in efforts to keep the KKK from being honored in local history.

Faya is married to Alabama State Sen. Hank Sanders. When she's not being arrested by hyperactive local police, Faya serves as the co-founder and chair of the Direct Action Committee of Saving Ourselves (S.O.S.), a Movement of 32 organizations for Justice and Democracy.

Her lack of complacency serves as a reminder that we must insist on our dignity as human beings first and foremost- that we cannot rely on our elected officials to do the daily ethics for us. Alabama is a better place as a result of this woman who refuses to take complacency- "That's just the way things, are honey... You can't change the world"- for a serious answer. You can, of course, sign this petition against the erection of a disgraceful monument in Selma. 

More to explore

C.A.R.E. 
Faya speaks to Selma City Council (Video and news report)
Article on "Moral Mondays" and Toure (Greene County Democrat)
"An African American Manifesto on Education" (Faya Toure)
"An Opinion on the Death Penalty" (Faya Toure)
"View from Selma: Can Obama Debate Be Colorblind?" (NPR)

Reading comprehension for My Dad's A Birdman by David Almond.

 

 

The book became a musical in which songs were written by the Pet Shop Boys. It's a great read for middle schoolers and an insightful night read for early readers. I shared a few questions that I wrote for Max (the printable PDF is below). Enjoy the book and the music.

My Dad's A Birdman (PDF)

Additional resources

Book excerpt (Scholastic)
Exploring David Almond's book (alina's adventures)
Night Song, video of Pet Shop Boys tune from the musical (YouTube)
My Dad's A Birdman rehearsal photos (Young Vic Studio)
David Almond Biography (David Almond)
"My dad's a birdman (and my imagination) took flight" (David Almond, The Guardian)

A rock maze in autumn.

Milla decided to rearrange the rock maze... Something about the rich blanket of fall leaves made it difficult for the kids to find their way through the rocks. So Milla set about "fixing" things. She's a fixer. 

Meanwhile, nearby, we were simply a-mazed to discover how some plants ensure proper seed distribution. Fortunately, I did not have any plastic bags to bring home this sample for future learning opportunities. Max did put one of the seeds in his pocket so we could determine what plant was being "poop-planted".

Unfortunately, by the time we returned home, Max had "lost" the seed, which happens to resemble a number of the seeds we are snacking on these days.

Stones, seeds, leaves, life- all the swirling, all the color, never ceases. I've vowed to let my jaw drop more often in sheer amazement at the beauty and wackiness of life. I think this is a better choice than my usual holiday frenzy of lists and must-do's and plans....

Shrooming with the kids in Alabama: Identifying sample #4.

Sample #4: "The Frilly Funnel"

This sample was a beige, waxish color with darkened edges. The stalk was in an off-center, or eccentric, position relative to the cap. We determined it's cap had a funnel shape and I forgot to catch another photo as Milla ventured too close to shroom-resembling dog poop.

Max determined that the gills were decurrent "because it looks like they might be running down the stalk".

Identification

Max felt strongy that our little specimen was a chanterelle- but the specimen is so young that we found it hard to tell how it might look in a few days. We tossed around the possibility of trumpet mushrooms without coming to any conclusions. 

Ultimately, our identification was challenged by the growth of the "Frilly Funnel" on a grassy lawn (rather than along a dead stump or in moist forest soil). Our frilly friend will have to live with a pen name until we manage to get out again and see how she has developed.

More to explore

How to find and identify chantarelle mushrooms (Sunny from Alabama)
Alabama chantarelles (Beer, Banjos, Boats and Biology)
Chanterelle (Wild About Mushrooms)
Of trumpets, hedgehogs, and yellowfeet (Honest Food)
How to tell real from fake chanterelle (The Sunday Roaster)

They knew you when....

The King congratulates Milla on her faux "reading" of The Little Engine That Could. 
All photos taken by Matt Scooby Alsup.

Hanging out with old friends makes you realize how much you've changed, and yet how little you've grown. Seeing them, catching up- meeting their new babies and toddlers, discovering how much you like their chosen spouses, how they just seem to "fit"- makes me more aware of the fact that there are some people who know you well enough to see straight through your latest cover story. It's a relief to be known like that- to be known for your youthful ideals and hopes, all the stuff that didn't pan out as expected.

Matt captured the girls in action- which is made more difficult by the fact that they seem to be everywhere at once these days. I remember reading a book about how boys are naturally "wild" and "adventuresome" or something to that effect as articulated by John Eldredge (who was just wrong about all that).

My experience with kids has taught me that boys have no monopoly on wildness and risk-taking. In our family, the adventurousness is mutual.

 

Milla clowns around for Matt. Micah calls her "the clown" these days.

Then of course there was the king, proud raker of lawns (once a season), fantastic chef, ceaseless dish-washer, and winner of the Coryell Castle "Best All Around" award.

I married him for his smile (and those awesome teeth).

Catching a glimpse of ourselves seven years into our marriage reveals how little has changed. Perhaps the expectations are a little lower- and the extent to which we value our evening hours together sit higher on the totem- but I can't help thinking he got the raw end of the deal. Pity the budding monarch/dude who marries a woman for her "potential" without first checking to make sure she has any ambitions.

Learning about lynx.

After a busy morning riding bikes earlier this week at the Arboretum, Milla opted for a nap. As Max studied his sailing manuals, Bella and Micah worked on their Lynx craft. We talked about cats that we can't keep in our homes as pets. 

B.'s handsome pink-colored lynx

Milla woke up and colored the golden lynx while Micah and I worked together to finish the rainbow lynx, an undiscovered species that roams around the Coryell Castle.

True stories about lynx and bobcats

A part of the small cat group, the lynx can be identified by the tufts of black fur on its ears. There are four species of lynx: the Spanish lynx, Canadian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat. More facts about lynx we discussed as Bella and Micah colored:

• Live all over remote northern forests in Asia, Europe and North America.
• Distinctive white patch on their ears below the black tuft of hair and a short ruff under their necks.
• Large, heavily padded paws that help them walk on snow.
• Excellent eyesight that allows them to spot prey 250 feet (75 meters) away.
• Elusive and hard to spot, often hiding behind tree stumps or rocks when stalking prey.

Love letter #111: Ringo Atelier, a French hub for the artistic output of little people.

I fell inlove with Ringo, and thought I'd share a few of the lovely how-to's, accompanied by my "creative" translation of the French instructions. Yes, this means I'm of the "translate the spirit rather than the literal word" school... Forgive me when I misread the spirit. 

Ringo's cardboard garage

Imagine your garage as cardboard. Now cut a shape that will be a roof. Give free rein to your desires and your imagination. Imagine the shift from ground to roof to create a park on the terrace. Add a large window with a little transparent plastic. Then cut cardboard shapes and fold them to fashion columns and a gas station. As you make your cardboard garage, remember that it is possible to design and build something from 100% recycled materials. 

Ringo's still life 

More appropriately translated as "dead nature", Ringo's still life project focuses on broad color blocking and expressionism. To begin, choose an object that you will observe for your still life. Think fruit, plant, bouquet, cups, etc. Then select three or four colors of thick pastel crayons in flat. The colors don't need to match the color of your object; instead, focus on making sure the colors go well together. Then draw what you see!

Ringo's sack clothing

Look around the house and studio for plastic bags, brown bags, crepe or tissue paper, and other packaging or wrapping papers that include patterns. Cut small scraps or shapes of colored paper in basic shapes. Also assemble colored stickers, scissors, and glue sticks. Now create your own outfits from the found materials. Have fun inventing matching characters.

Ringo's balloon portraits

Blow up a few balloons and use permanent marker to sketch faces on them. For a dinner party, consider drawing a portrait of each person and attaching it to their chair as a placemarker.

Ringo's marker blot dots

Have fun with your pens and blotting paper. Place a colored felt on the blotter. When it permeates the blotter, create mixed colors by asking other markers next to the first "spot". This mix will have a pretty and aged effect. Continue creating colored dots until you have a pattern you like or until the dots resemble a specific outline or evoke a feeling.

Ringo's folded paper circles

You will need one sheet of colored paper (or leftover paper bags) and one sheet of plain white paper. Starting at one end of the colored paper, fold it over to create a crease that measures about 5mm to 10mm, then fold it againso as to bring it forward. Continue doing this all the way along the length of the paper at 5mm intervals. Then cut two half circles from the folded sheet; now cut each half circle into two halves. you découperas in two. Compose a circle and then glue it on the white paper while varying the direction of the folds.

Additional inspirations from Ringo

Confetti-covered tshirt 
In the manner of David Hockney 
In the manner of Josh Blackwell
Sketch the rest (with printable PDF)
Your own design book (with printable PDF)

54 ways to learn through exploring the autumn outside.

 “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus

1. Find symmetry in nature.
(Buggy and Buddy)

2. Use pinecones to forecast the weather.
(Sorting Sprinkles)

3. Write a poem about about how it's not just a stick.
(Child's Play Music)

4. Collect and sort different parts of trees.
(Inspiration Laboratories)

5. Make a neighborhood tree guide.
(Kid World Citizen)

6. Use trigonometry to find out the height of your favorite trees.
(Science Sparks)

7. Create mini-nature weaving looms to preserve your treasures.
(Housing A Forest)

8. Observe and journal about a stump ecoystem.

9. Find a large log and make painted coasters.
(bread and buttons)

10. Observe a day in the life of a backyard birdbath.
(The Locust-Fork News Journal)

11. Make a A-frame winter shelter in your backyard.
(Mother Earth News)

12. Go shrooming.

13. Whittle together.
(Acorn Pies)

14. Sing the autumn fairy song.
(Let's Play Kids Music)

15. Try some leaf sewing on your nature walk.
(How We Learn)

16. Celebrate your local "Fall Ball".

17. Paint on seed pods.
(Danya Banya)

18. Make colorful homemade stick wind chimes.
(Happy Hooligans)

19. Find a sacred stump and tell its story.

20. Play and craft with helicopter seeds.
(Lalymom)

21. Make a twig bow and arrow.
(Acorn Pies)

22. Make rock dominoes.
(Childcareland Blog)

23. Rake some pinestraw and donate it to your school garden.

24. Build an insect hotel.
(Babble Dabble Do)

25. Blaze your own woodland trail.
(My Nearest and Dearest)

26. Whip up some fancy dinner place cards from fall leaves.
(Cool Progeny)

27. Craft a thankful mobile- try using found natural objects.
(Made By Joel)

28. Find triangles and circles in nature on a nature walk.

29. Make fern prints.
(My Nearest and Dearest)

30. Fall madly in love with a longleaf pine tree.

31. Try leaf sorting- all you need is chalk and the great outdoors.
(How Wee Learn)

32. Create a stick family- and a story to boot.
(Craftulate)

33. Watercolor leaf prints.

34. Get acquainted with all the action around another tree stump.

35. Now consider building a little loom on it.
(Babble Dabble Do)

36. Join the Knowing Nature Challenge.

37. Play with sticks.
(Picklebums)

38. Delve into some acorn math.
(Living Montessori Now)

39. Go on a sound walk.
(Mother Goose Programs)

40. Plan an extended soundwalk through a local park. 
(Hildergard Westerkemp)

41. Make a home for hedgehogs.
(Breathing Places)

42. Play with leaves and markers.
(House Wren Studios)

43. Hone the fine art of fox walking.
(Hedgehog Leatherworks)

44. Make the easiest leaf wreath ever.
(willowday)

45. Pen an Ode to Autumn.

46. Practice your Tree Poses together in the grass.

47. Make a mobile of acorn people.
(Shared Threads)

48. Use the season as a reason for extra hugs and softened voices.

49. Create autumn nature prints in sculpey or clay.
(The Artful Parent)

50. Concoct delightful, open-ended autumn trees.
(Full Circle)

51. Fashion simple autumn leaf crowns from your special tree.
(Twig and Toadstool)

52. Start an Apple Day tradition.
(Storybook Woods)

53. Play the 5 trees outdoor game.
(5 Orange Potatoes)

54. Just sit in a sunny spot and sketch what you see- the world that surrounds you.

And if the weather is too wet for outdoor explorations, consider making a cardboard tree play house with instructions and templates from Spoonful. Because we can't control the weather outside- we can only vow to honor the weather within.

The Alabama Blues Project Fundraiser, or how Max got a fancy new harp.

Because he lost his backpack with his harp, chess notebook, and several expensive field guides contained within, I purchased a new harp for him- one that cost five times as much as the one he lost. I'm not good at incentives.

He looked forward to playing with the spontaneous combustion of the soul sisters- but the soul sisters were sick. Imagine our fun fortune when he got the chance to play with the Blues Project Intermediate Band. 

Even the chapped lips couldn't stop him from the thrill of those wooden reeds. In fact, he rushed to the restroom to wash his mouth before touching his lips to his harp. Explanation: "Mom, you know that chapstick can clog the reeds..." I can't remember if he added the provisional "Duh". 

After explaining the sad story of Trayvon's death to him, Max finally agreed that wearing his hoodie during the performance might not be advisable. On the other hand, he said he wanted to wear his hoodie whenever he walked in a park or a street in memory of Trayvon. (Sheesh- the Max has an even stronger sense of justice than his mother...)

Candlelight, a steady dose of blues, and the soft glimmer of a brand new harp that nothing can keep you from playing- what more can we ask of life?

 

Thoughts on Mr. Lookadoo's approach to "self-empowerment".

"Mom," Micah whimpers, her eyes still moist, "It's like I'm just not dateable. I mean, none of the guys want to go out with me... If I was allowed to wear makeup, then at least I could compete with the other girls." I shake my head, trying to find a way to respond. But Micah continues, wailing, "All I want is to be DATEABLE..."

So goes the scene I imagine in my head after reading the R U Dateable website. It's not a pretty picture.

What if Micah's biggest goal in life is to be "dateable"- to be desired and wanted by men? What if my competitive, ambitious, super self-conscious middle child decides the most important thing she can be is wanted by some man? How much more pathetic an aspiration could we find for existence?

A preface and a few disclaimers

In what follows- my grappling with "dateability"- the narrative will not attempt the impossible task of remaining gender-neutral. Because Mr. Lookaboo's worldview is so incredibly gendered, I will try to explain why it fails to make the world a more beguiling and beautiful place for our children rather than present compelling arguments against a gendered interpretation of human relations (arguments to which I fully subscribe). Note that gendered accounts are precisely what keeps the "war of the sexes" running. If we approach other humans as individuals, we are less likely to rely on gendered cliches to explain and understand the behavior of what turns out to be just another human being. 

Given the heteronormativity of every single word uttered by Mr. Lookaboo, I won't try to explain why such a narrow understanding of human sexuality is poisonous to individual flourishing (one reason why I reject heteronormative accounts). It's too big and breathtaking to bring in; I can't do it justice and still explain what bothers me so deeply about this emerging dateability paradigm.

Instead, I'm going to stick to the narrow, nasty picture painted by Mr. Lookaboo- a picture in which girls should "accept" being girls while guys should remember that they are on top, the world is theirs to "lead", destroy and pillage without regard to so-called feminine virtues like empathy, compassion, and honor for human life.

"Dude, that girl is sooooo dateable...." and other forms of empowerment

For the record, friends, it is not a compliment to say someone is "dateable". Not for those of us who prefer to be respected as individuals rather than prototypes. In fact, I'll go so far as to suggest that Justin Lookadoo might have done us all a favor by revealing "dateability" and the teenage dating world for the misogynist entry-level meat market that it is.

That said, I feel that Lookadoo's brand of uplift is humiliating for men, women, girls, boys, and human beings in general. The only thing that gets lifted is an oversexualized valuation of females that encourages duplicity, manipulation, and lack of personal integrity. Granted, guys get to pat themselves on the back for maintaining the double standard that requires girls to pay them homage for acting like douches.

Being a guy is good. Dateable guys know they aren’t as sensitive as girls and that’s okay. They know they are stronger, more dangerous, and more adventurous and that’s okay. Dateable guys are real men who aren’t afraid to be guys.

Obviously, given these sorts of assumptions, Mr. Lookaboo is relieved to have been born a "guy". I can't imagine hearing those words and thinking somehow that being born a girl is anything other than a twisted form of slavery or punishment. Unlike yours truly, Compassion International, a well-known Christian nonprofit, celebrates Mr. Lookadoo's approach to empowerment on their website:

Justin Lookadoo's witty, off-the-wall-style of writing, nails reality "slab dab in the middle," as translated in Justin's native El Paso lingo.

He leverages current and relevant cultural twists to show teens that biblical Christian values are actually cool rules to live by.

He says, "Everything I do wraps around two themes: identity and purpose. Who am I? Why am I here? These are the challenges that face young people today."

When it comes to young adults, Jason is a certified specialist in the field, having served as a juvenile probation officer, crime and drug prevention specialist for six years.

I'm not sure that Jason/Justin assisted juvenile offenders in understanding why rape or sexual assault are unacceptable violations of human dignity. Mr. Lookadoo's advice to young girls overemphasizes their sexual presentation to men and then holds them responsible for the effect. For example:

“Please, please don't tease us. To show us your hot little body ... and then tell us we can't touch it is being a tease. You can't look that sexy and then tell us to be on our best behavior.”

Is it so hard to go from this to the presumption that a girl who is raped was "asking for it"? How does Compassion International interpret this statement in light of its primary mission involving compassion for other human beings? Mr. Lookaboo is radically compassionate in that he reserves his compassion for girls in burkas. Wouldn't it be better if he just reminded guys that girls do not exist for the purpose of their sexual arousal or pleasure? Just because you see a girl that looks attractive does not mean you have a "right" to look at her or fantasize about her. Nothing that a girl puts on her body gives you any rights over her body. The only rights you have with respect to another human being are those explicity communicated by word of mouth.

Oddly, this sort of market-driven approach to the female body poises Mr. Lookadoo to be an excellent would-be critic of consumer culture, advertising, and modern capitalism- except, of course, that this is not the direction in which he plans to take us. Not at all. That's because Mr. Lookadoo wants us to buy his dating books and his "hip" persona as an alternative to so-called popular mainstream culture. 

“Ladies, I’m going to say this in the nicest way possible….you are the most horrible, awful, vindictive creatures this planet has ever seen.”

How would you feel if you happen to have a vulva and have to listen to this without being able to stand up and respond? Unfortunately, I feel more empowered by listening to a Chris Rock stand-up routine than I do by listening to Mr. Lookadoo. At least Chris Rock doesn't wear the Christian brand on his shoulder.

Come to think of it, Lookadoo leaves the same taste in my mouth as watching Bill Maher- a gross disgusted taste which makes me more conscious of my "fleshly goods" than my spirit, independence, or individuality. The female body is America's most inflated, liposuctioned, labioplasted commodity, with Lookadoo, Bill Maher, and Hugh Hefner acting as a few of its greatest salesmen.

Guys should be honest, but girls should master the fine arts of salesmanship and deception

Mr. Lookadoo's divergent advice for guys and gals expresses the differing power relations accorded to sex and gender in the present day. Guys, as the power-holding group, can afford to be themselves and to express their feelings (or lack thereof). Meanwhile, girls, as the powerless, must play to those in power and try to trick or manipulate them into tossing a few token crumbs of respect in their direction. It's a nasty charade- one we can only hope to finally bury.

Be honest with girls. Dateable guys don’t use the truth to their advantage. They know that girls read into things so they don’t use that for their good. They are honest and not manipulative.

Boys tell it like it is. But girls need to tell it like the boys want to hear it. If reading Lookaboo's rules for dateability makes a girl feel manipulative and twisted, that's because this is precisely what Lookaboo reccommends.

Part of being a Dateable girl means you really see people. They matter, and if you don’t look them in the eye then you will never see them and they will never know they matter to you. Look ‘em in the eye. They are valuable.

It's an old salesman's trick- connect with someone by meeting their gaze and holding it. It's the best way to disarm a person, to cuddle up close to their mind without physically touching their body. And, yes, looking into someone's eyes is exciting, suggestive, and erotic- it's the sexiest way to kiss and make love; it's the source of swoons for Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. But for Mr. Lookaboo, who doesn't really believe in uncontrived, romantic love, looking 'em in the eye is key to a succesful sales pitch.

God made guys as leaders. Dateable girls get that and let him do guy things, get a door, open a ketchup bottle. They relax and let guys be guys. Which means they don’t ask him out!!!

The sales pitch matters because Lookaboo believes a woman's job is to manipulate a man into wanting to marry her. The dateable girl knows how to sell herself to a man. The more a girl can make a guy feel like the stud, the more likely he will bloom into the true stud that God intended him to be. So when a guy doesn't want to change the diapers, you can bet there is a woman to blame- a woman, maybe his wife, that doesn't "let him lead". 

Need him. Dateable girls know that guys need to be needed. A Dateable girl isn’t Miss Independent. She knows we are made for community. Needing each other is part of faith. She allows him to be needed at times, knowing he was called to serve just as much as she was.

But you can't blame an aspiring dater for being confused... not when the next suggestions from Mr. Lookaboo involve hiding your interest, feelings, enthusiasms, passions, and thoughts from the very person you're supposedly pretending to "need". The suggestions for fakery and dishonest self-presentation undergird every aspect of Mr. Lookaboo's rules for girls. Like the old Madonna-whore dichotomy, a girl is asked to play two different drums at the same time while admitting to not having played either. 

The sexiest thing on a girl is happiness. Girls try so hard to add beauty and sexuality to themselves with clothes and make-up, but the truth is it’s your spirit that makes you hot. Your outlook on life, your happiness factor. Dateable girls aren’t downers, they love life.

Pretend to be happy. Smile all the time. When you don't feel it, fake it.

Be mysterious. Dateable girls know how to shut up. They don’t monopolize the conversation. They don’t tell everyone everything about themselves. They save some for later. They listen more than they gab.

Pretend to be shy and "mysterious"- as if being yourself, a unique and fantastic human being, isn't mysterious enough. Nod when a dude speaks, and don't get in the way of his fantasies about you by allowing him to get to know the person over the prototype.

Dateable girls know that confidence is hot. And the cool part is that no one knows if you are confident but you. Confidence isn’t how you feel, it’s how you act. Act confident and people will think you are.

Pretend that you are the bee's knees- because you're not the bee's knees. You're actually just another girl trying desperately to "win" a guy's attention. You don't have to love yourself- that's not what you need to be working through during those teenage years. No, save the self-love for later. Right now, just focus on pretending to love yourself so you can get a guy to love you.

The best girl is one who fakes it

But then, just so you don't too comfortable, remember...

Dateable girls don’t lie to themselves. They don’t say stuff like, “His girlfriend just isn’t good to him, that’s why he’s seeing me on the side.” Or “She started it so I’m going to get even.” The Dateable girl let’s God run the world, and tells herself the truth–that all she can control is herself. She doesn’t imagine things to be more than they are.

(Note: All spelling mistakes belong to Mr. Lookaboo- I'm just doing as a dateable girl should do, namely copying and pasting the formidable wisdom of a male leader.) So dateable girls don't just sit and listen to a motivational speaker disparage them on the basis of their sexual organs. Instead, a dateable girl

So we find ourselves back in the Garden of Eden. Back to the paradise where a man blamed a woman's independence for his own course of action. Eve didn't let Adam lead. See what happens when a man follows a woman? Personally, I'm more inclined towards Jacques Ellul's reading of the Eden story, one in which God decides to let women bear children because they're the ones who can be trusted to think of a future bigger than themselves (rather than looking for someone else, to blame for the choices they've made). 

This "dateability" bull-poop prepares a woman to blame herself for her partner's future infidelity, should she be one of the odd 50% of marriages in which such an event were to occur. Up next from Mr. Lookadoo... the book R U Sexworthy, a how-to guide on ways to keep a wild, adventuresome, undomesticated man from cheating once he discovers that marriage is an institution intended to pay lip service to the dignity of two individuals (as opposed to their "adventuresome" inclinations). Okay, so I made up that last bit about the book. 

But here is what I'm not fudging. I'm not fudging the fact that Mr. Lookaboo and his crew should never be allowed to present their ideas in a school as a speech or lecture. The only context in which Mr. Lookaboo should speaking to teenagers is in a debate, where opposing paradigms are given equal time and students have a chance to come to their own conclusions. 

7 FAST REASONS WHY UNDATEABLE PEOPLE ROCK

1. Undateables will not allow another person to disparage them on the basis of their sexual organs without pointing out to said person that such insults are unacceptable. And when men like Mr. Conservative call their response an "attack", undateables point out that their response would me more accurately called a "counter-attack".
2. Undateables focus their energies on learning how to love themselves rather than constructing a false self they hope will be loved by others if they can manage to get the sales pitch just right.
3. Undateables revel in flexible constructions of gender that allow them to thrive and flourish without resorting to fakery.
4. Undateables don't have to worry about remember "rules" that have no bearing on personal ethics or integrity.
5. Undateables prefer communication to duplicituous manipulation.
6. Undateables don't blame victims for the crimes perpetuated against them.
7. Undateables are capable of compassion and empathy for persons who don't fit in the dating box or the conventional categories.

Now read what others have to say about Mr. Lookadoo's message. 

The Christian Science Monitor's Modern Parenthood blog responds
Jamie Clark-Soles responds
Make Me a Sammich responds
Matthew L. Skinner looks at the Biblical side of Lockado's and Lockadon'ts
Not Black and White Thoughts responds
Taylor B. Allen responds and shares her petition
Happy Nice Time People's satire of Lookadoo
Christopher Zara on Lookadoo's connections to gay conversion therapy

Shrooming with the kids in Alabama: Identifying sample #5.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were experts in wine fermentation but they had no modern tools to understand and imply that fungi were largely responsible for these transformations.

Sample #5: "The Old Man"

The cap of what came to be called "The Old Man" was filled with holes and spots. It looked like it had been around for a long time. 

We found another Old Man up near the road in a drainage ditch close to a group of pine trees- so much excitement and color taking place on its depressed cap. 

The purple-blue gills ran down the stalk in a decurrent fashion.

The stalk was centrally positioned. And the color of the gills blackened towards the edges. We wondered if blue dye might be extracted from a willing Old Man. 

Trying to ID the Old Man led us to seek mycorrhizal associations of various species with trees nearby. The main tree in the vicinity was the pine tree.

Interesting fact about mycorrhizal associations on fungal diversity: Few trees in the Costa Rican forest are able to form ectomycorrhizae while in Canadian forests, all the trees form ectomycorrhizae. Thus the Canadian forests boast a great variety of large mushrooms while the tropical forests in Costa Rica support a lessor variety of mostly small mushrooms.

Identification

Option 1: Lactarius indigo

Lactarius indigo range from adnate to slightly decurrent, and crowded close together. Their color is indigo blue that becomes paler with age or staining green with damage. They are often found in floodplain areas (that is where we found one of our Old Men) and around pine trees. Most are foraged in late August.

Max feels strongly that our Old Man is an indigo milk cap mushroom; he notes the decurrent gills. But I think that it looks so much browner on the cap that it would have to be a very, very Old, Old man (maybe from August) if this were true. Not to mention that all the Lactarius indigo seem to have indigo and white caps.

But no better options have entered the picture....

Indigo milkies (Mycologista)
The Bluest of Fungi (Forager Chef)
Indigo milkcap (Shakerag Susan)
Indigo milkcap for food (Prairie Infusions)
"Mycorrhizae and the American Chestnut: An Underground Tale of Mystery" by Jonathan Palmer (American Chestnut Foundation)

Shrooming with the kids in Alabama: Identifying sample #3.

Sample #3: "The Socialites"

We ran across this large, bulbuous sample several times. The larger the sample, the more likely we were to find a thriving community of similar shrooms nearby. So we decided to dub them "the socialites" as a way to describe them before final identification could be made.

The underside revealed a surprise- spongy yellow gills attached to the stalk in an adenante (or broadly attached) pattern. Shroomers call these "sponge-like pores" and often classify them alongside the curious category of tooth-like gills.

One might easily mistake these shrooms for a log or something the dog left behind on the lawn. The shape of the cap is convex.

When we turned it over, we saw the same spongy underside, only this time the coloring was less yellow and more cream-like. We guessed it was a younger specimen. The stalk seemed to be club-shaped and possibly upward tapering.

Identification

It didn't take long for us to realize that the socialites might be even more convivial than we had imagined. Their spongy gills kept leading us back to the Bolete family, a group prized by foragers for their rich taste and versatility. Unfortunately, the height of the grass kept us from viewing the Socialites in their full-stemmed glory.

Option 1: Boletus fragans

Specifically, Boletus fragans is characterized by a brown cap which begins as convex, then spreads with an irregular and wavy edge. Chestnut-brown in color with a velvety structure, the B. fragans' stipe spindle-shaped. The timing is right- the B. fragans grows in the summer and fall in the grass courts of deciduous forests, especially under oak and chestnut. Our yard, of course, is a combination of conifers and deciduous trees.

Option 2: Suillus brevipes

The other compelling candidate was Suillus brevipes, or Slippery Jack. The Suillus stem more closely resembled the puny stem of our Socialites. Also, the fact that it is found under conifers, which thrive in our yard, makes it a closer bet. On the other hand, everyone describes this shroom as very slimy and slippery- and yet it didn't entirely seem that way. 

So we're still seeking an ID for our Socialiate friends.... Mainly, we'd like to know it we can go ahead and count them in for dinner tomorrow night.

Slippery jack omelette recipe (Cook Almost Anything)
Boletes (Wild About Mushrooms)
Short-stemmed Slippery jack (Flickr)
Suillus brevipes (Wikipedia)

Shrooming with the kids in Alabama: The impetus and prepping.

Last night, the winds rattled fall leaves from reluctant trees. We woke to a clear, sunny day laden with leftover rain and the scent of wet decaying leaves enriching the air with what Micah called "that life smell".

The bright orange blurs of an Alabama autumn morning.

It didn't take long for us to discover the burgeoning mushrrom harvest covering the wet ground, nestled between the fallen leaves. Backgrounder before setting out into the field for observations and investigations. Thanks to The Alabamycologist, we found a ready resource for local fungal action.

Nature at Close Range, one of my favorite nature study blogs, discovered the stunning Indigo milk mushroom as well as the American Caesar's mushroom growing in her Alabama yard. Of course, her kids deserve credit for at least one of these discoveries, an acknowledgement that so many amazing things are found by the eyes of little people. A few more butterflies we chased while nibbling cherry tomatoes and Amish cheese...

Brian Folt forages for wild shrooms in Lee County (Farm Forests Foods)
A Mushroom Reader well worth the read (Strataspore)
"Puffballs: Overlooked Medicinals?" by Will Blackwell (Mushroom The Journal)
Renewable Resources Extension Act applications at Alabama universities

Then, with nature journals and colored pencils tucked in a bag, we set off down the street to find a few shrooms of our own.

Mushroom Cap Comparison Grid (Handbook of Nature Study)

 

We lacked a good fungus guide for identification purposes, so we settled for an online mushroom identifier.  And off we went....

Beware when your child spends time learning about Romanian vineyards...

It seems a liberal education can lead to creativity across the board, including the making of wine labels by a ten-year-old boy whose old wine tasting takes place at communion.

Max's handmade, index-card wine label involved no input from his humble mother or father. He has yet to explain the "logo" to me. All the same, his relentless pursuit of makings and doings inspires and enchants me- keeps my head outside the many boxes I have built for myself.

What he does in his free time.

This is what Max does for fun- he composes modern piano music. I should know by experience that living with a composer is not for the faint of heart...

A fall learning activity: Celebrate the "fall ball".

Studying sparrows at the library this morning.

The weather was so perfect earlier this week that we decided to go out and chronicle the annual event known to a handful of persons as the "Fall Ball". If you've never heard of the Fall Ball, you've probably still enjoyed it. That's the name we minted to describe the different colors worn by each tree species. Today, with the onset of the November rains, marked the end of this year's Fall Ball.

But our chronicling of this gala has just begun... Here's the free activity sheet for download followed by the poem we used to frame our exploration.

THE ANNUAL FALL BALL ACTIVITY (PDF)

A few of the stunning trees attending the Fall Ball this year....

The brittle maroon dress of the flowering dogwood trees....

The frilly yellow tunic of the maple....

And the spectacular golden variety of the sugar maple's heavy gown...

Sometimes we can't find the tree to place the leaf.

A tiny frill of purplish crimson lining the edge of a sleeve...

Milla compares a few fallen dress tatters.

Of course, I wouldn't leave you with a cheat-sheet (though I hope you won't use it). Just know that the cheat sheet is there for emergency use.... Tree ID is much more enriching and fun without taking easy shortcuts.

Adrian Ghenie and other fantabulous Romanian artists on the post-Ceausescu art scene.

Adrian Ghenie’s “Pie Fight Interior 8.”

Twenty five years after Ceausescu’s lightning-quick trial and execution on Christmas Day, when most of the artists were in grade school, they retain a special brand of pragmatism, cynicism and dark wit. Their output — somber, intellectual, haunted by history and laced with gallows humor — reveals the psyche of a country sentenced to grapple with its past for decades to come. Ghenie’s thickly worked canvases depicting what look like melting faces have drawn comparisons to the work of Francis Bacon, but his titles making reference to pie fights lend the works a layer of slapstick. Muresan’s video of dog puppets evokes the human potential for brutality. The Romanian critic and curator Mihnea Mircan, 37, summed up their generation as “allergic to utopia.”

In this spirit, they navigate success in a post-Communist environment, where for decades most any achievement required working with the regime. “I trust myself better than I trust others,” Serban Savu, 35, says, explaining the self-reliance he and his colleagues have developed. “Nobody helped us to construct the art scene.”

Read this for the rest of this fascinating story.

Coyotes in East Tuscaloosa.

A suburban Alabama coyote, the kind that is "here to stay".

The past few weeks have put me and my spirit animal in close proximity on several occasions. If I confess my affinity for the coyote, I do so with a caveat, namely, that the mythic character of Coyote doesn't appeal to me. What I love about the coyote is what I also love about the wolf- the relentless habit of howling at the moon, speaking to the night, feeling safe in that silvered light.

Coyote the creature, a wandering loner content to dwell outside the pack, has my respect. But Coyote the myth, the trickster who tries to live outside ethics, who holds himself to no standard apart from his own pleasure, has always struck me as a rather juvenile fantasy, the kind I might have entertained back in the day when I still thought my parents were to blame for the stuff that went wrong in my life. Again, my love for coyote rubs hard against my wariness of Coyote. 

But here's why it matters. Last week, when we were wandering through the Arboretum doing nature journaling, a coyote happily crossed our path. Then he veered into the parking lot. This week, Kenny informed me the coyote population was very high this year- he's seen several in the unofficial dog park in the past few weeks.

Then, lo and behold, when the king joined us for lunch today, trumpets unfurling blue banners, his first words to me announced the presence of coyote on the street just outside our house. A dirty-blonde, reddish, sneaky coyote fellow walking near our mailbox, crossing the street with that typical bouncing step that makes canine friends look sluggish.

The kids and I missed seeing the coyote (Max worried about how the coyote and the fox that lives behind our home would co-exist), but we managed to identify his tracks. The coyote of Cherokee Hills, a legend begging to be narrated.

As usual, the events of the day determined our learning schedule. All my previous plans whistled through the window and the coyote-inspired ruckus gathered momentum. So I found a few fact sheets and tasked Max with reading them and sharing their contents with the girls. The little proffesor loves the opportunity to profess...

Coyotes in Alabama Fact Sheet (Outdoor Alabama)

The Coyote: Facts and Myths (Alabama Cooperative Extension Service)

Meanwhile, I set about doing my bit of research on Alabama coyotes. It seems that the coyote trapping season in Alabama lasts from mid-November through February. Local coyote friends eat small, furry mammals, many of which are out and about during this time, seeking food to store for the winter. 

As I mentioned before, Native American legends have long included a character known as Coyote, whose powers include an ability to blur moral boundaries by playing the trickster. Coyote (the character) cannot ever be trusted. 

One of my favorite tales is an old Caddo story, "Coyote Goes Fishing", in which an elderly Caddo man takes revenge on the ever-deceptive Coyote. It's unusual because it turns that tables on the ever-wiley Coyote.

I shared it aloud with the little people to see what they thought. Did Coyote get what he deserved? What did the Caddos teach in the telling of this tale? Did you feel sympathy for Coyote? Why or why not?

One time Coyote went out hunting along the river and saw some one walking along its banks, carrying something on his back. When he came nearer he saw that it was a man carrying a fish. Coyote came to him, and said: “How do you do, my friend? Where are you going? Where have you been? Where did you get that big snake?”

“Well,” said the man, “I have been out fishing nearly all night, and finally I caught this fish. I was so tired that I did not care to catch another.”

“What!” said Coyote, “do you call that a fish? How did you get hold of it?”

“Well,” said the man, “I will tell you how to get them. When evening comes go down along the edge of the river and break a place in the ice just big enough to put your tail in, and stay there until I come to see you again.”

That same evening Coyote went to the place and found the man waiting for him. It was getting dark. The man told Coyote to sit down by the edge of the water, while he was breaking the ice. Coyote did as the man told him. He did not know that this was a man whom he had tricked some time before and that he was trying to get revenge. The man left Coyote sitting by the bank fishing all that cold night. Toward the middle of the night the water began to freeze on Coyote’s tail, and toward morning the ice got thicker and thicker, and when morning came Coyote tried to get up from his seat, for he was very tired, but he could not. There he was, trying in every way to get free, but he could not move.

When the man came he said to Coyote: “How are you getting along? Are you catching any fish?” Coyote replied: “I think I have caught two or three of them, but can you help me to get them out on dry land?”

“Yes,” said the man, “of course I will, although I want to talk to you before we get the fish out of the water. You remember that a long time ago you were one of my best friends, but finally you tricked me, and now I am getting even with you. You will have to die, for I am going to kill you.”

“My friend,” said Coyote, “I think you are mistaken. I do not think I am the man who played the mean trick on you. You know very well that I never betray my friends while I am able to see. If you will let me go this time I will go and bring the man you are looking for, and I will come back to-morrow evening and assure you that I am your friend.”

“But,” said the man, “I do not see how you are going to get loose to go, do you? I will look for the other man myself, and I will do to him just as I am going to do to you.”

The man went back to his lodge to get his bow and arrows. When he returned to Coyote he took one of the arrows out and showed it to him and said, “You see this?” He began to sing the song that warriors sing just before they kill their enemies. When he had finished the song he shot and killed Coyote.

Then we read "How Coyote Stole Fire", an alternate telling in the line of Coyote legends. It's another favorite- a story that should be told by a blazing bonfire with shadows dancing across the faces and nary a star in the night sky. A story in which reveals nuances in Coyote's character.

While the girls and I discussed the two stories, Max compared them in his journal, focusing on what traits of Coyote each story revealed. If the weather agrees, build a fire outside tonight and share this story with your family. Add a few marshmallows for the squirmiest little ones... I garner it will spark something memorable.

The Coryell Castle door-man.

Steve, our door-man, is quite the chap (insofar, of course, as a finger-puppet atop a twig can be called a chap). 

Help the Friends of Briarcliff Park win their battle against the DeKalb County machine.

Green space at the former Briarcliff Branch of the DeKalb County Public Library is shown on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in Atlanta. A neighborhood coalition is gaining momentum to turn the county-owned property into a community center and park rather than rezoning the facility for commercial investment, as proposed by the library. Photo credit and caption: Friends of Briarcliff Park.

My in-laws are knee-deep in the grubby, exciting, and sometimes frustrating activity known as community activism. It is a long and sordid story of the typical backroom-deals-with-private-cronies sort; the details made me feel like I needed a shower. I am proud of Suebee and Pops for fighting to leave a lasting positive land-use choice in their community. Yet I know how discouraging the fight can become when you realize that your local representative actually only represents a few wealthy developers (as opposed to all those voters to which he owes his election). 

In a brief essay from The Impossible Will Take A Little While, activist K.C. Golden ruminated on how environmentally destructive choices become what we call "inevitable". His thoughts reminded me of Vaclav Havel's insistence that you do the right thing not for the sake of winning but for the sake of living as a free, moral agent, in spite of what seems socially acceptable. Golden believes the chilling effect of inevitability....

"....starts when the people who will benefit from these choices simply begin to assert their inevitability. People seem especially receptive to inevitability right now. We're comforted by the notion that amid all the uncertainty and confusion- the restructuring and rightsizing and layoffs and insecurity- some larger forces are at work toward a predetermined outcome. We're sort of relieved to hear that something's inevitable, even if it's not necessarily something we like. It clarifies things. It's more pragmatic to be resigned to the inevitable than to chart a new course through the chaos. So the myth of inevitability spreads and the prophecy fulfills itself. "

Charting "a new course through the chaos" is precisely what the courageous Friends of Briarcliff Park are doing. They are fighting the myth of inevitability tended them with slick smiles and well-pressed suits by the men and women who realized long ago that serving the people didn't pay cash dividends. 

And this is exactly what their Commissioner is trying to do- he wants to make the citizens believe that everything was decided long ago and there is just nothing anyone can do about it anymore. He wants them to understand how he feels their frustration, but, again, his "hands are tied". And this is exactly what the Friends of Briarcliff Park must refuse to believe. Not even when the bulldozers arrive and sit idle on the site. Because, as Golden writes:

"If the proponents of a particular course of action can get a critical mass of folks to believe that it's a foregone conclusion, pretty soon it will be."

"Inevitably we do have choices to make. Failing to make them consciously isn't failing to make them at all: It's just falling for the inevitability trap. It's just giving ourselves an excuse for allowing the wrong choices to be made... Among all the reasons for making the wrong choice, I think the least satisfying, the least noble, the hardest one to forgive ourselves for is: 'It wasn't up to me'."

This is what it means to be an active citizen. Winning or losing matters, but it matters much less than the community you engage and enable by stepping into the arena of local politics. If you live in Atlanta or would like to support the community-building efforts of a motley Atlanta neighborhood crew, mosey on over to their Facebook page and give them a Like. In their own words:

The Friends of Briarcliff Park is a grass-roots neighborhood organization that formed when concerned residents learned that county officials wanted to re-zone the closed neighborhood library from residential to a commercial status. Children, families and senior citizens lost their cherished local library in 2009 and the building and it's beautiful property have been closed since then. The area is perfect for an outdoor playground and park, with a community center for all to enjoy. We envision a bright future for this neglected facility.

Hey Friends, keep up the good fight for local democracy. That's what I was taught the United States of America was all about. 

"A Ritual to Read to Each Other" by William Stafford.

Strange fruit in Montgomery, Alabama.

Strange fruit we found in the city of Montgomery....

Max said "breadfruit"- we haven't checked up on it yet.

Here's a close-up of the leaves....

And a close-up of the fruit.... as well as a little ladybug friend perched on top.

Southern magnolia nature note-booking page.

Max sometimes turns his nature notebook exercises into mini art-works. Perhaps I will ask him to help me with my own leaf drawings and watercolors. 

Just a thought... stolen from Wendell Berry.

It's our journaling prompt for the day, and it set me to thinking. What moments in your life have illustrated Wendell's thought?

Lamenting the post-tornado development of Tuscaloosa.

The plan for Tuscaloosa's future.

Since the tragedy of the 2011 tornadoes, Tuscaloosa has been rebuilding itself in accordance with the Tuscaloosa Forward Plan, a visionary document filled with the trendiest and most attractive aspects of sustainable development. Only the gnarliest curmudgeon would find the plan's designs unappealing.

The description of a winding greenway, lined with trees and sidewalks, connecting various parts of the town, opening the possibility of increased pedestrian and bicycle transport, was thrilling. Alas, areas previously designated for the greenway are now being sold to developers in the process of building yet another fancy Melrose-Place type apartment for university students. While it's nice that today's college students will have the opportunity to live in what could only have been sitcom-style luxury during my college years, all the massive new buildings and apartments are edifices of transience- a tremendous outlay intended to make fast money from temporary residents of what no longer feels like a town. 

Of course, "community" is not much of a concern to outside developers. Orlando's Pat Chisholm threatened the City Council with what might arise in the stead of his plan for a Hilton hotel in a heart of downtown Tuscaloosa. Unfortunately, Chisholm's one-track mind fails to see the costs of more hotels for local hotel owners- he has only to drive a few miles to see at least four abandoned hotels and lodging areas along McFarland Boulevard. And, of course, why should he care? Chisholm just wants to "develop Tuscaloosa", to "help recovery", to "provide consumers with the best possible product" and maybe to make a little money on the side. 

Filed as an LLC in the state of Florida on October 14, Chisholm's "The Balcony Tuscaloosa" promises to add nothing that does not already exist- except money that will flow into Florida, of course. And maybe a little cash for local contractors over a brief period of time. 

“The only true and effective "operator's manual for spaceship earth" is not a book that any human will ever write; it is hundreds of thousands of local cultures.” 
                        Wendell Berry, What Are People For?

But it's complicated, this rebuilding process. Part of the complexity comes from the very fact that Tuscaloosa needs to be "rebuilt" in the first place. All the associations and memories related to specific places- all the insider landmarks and pieces of local history, all the evocations- must be reforged as well. In addition to the horrors of physical destruction, natural disaster tears open a hole in our sense of community and shared history.

Walking through the treeless streets of east Tuscaloosa where the ground was covered in power lines and homes turned to rubble, we were all disoriented- nothing we knew stayed the same. It was hard to recognize our "place" amid the turmoil and destruction. So many brave people, groups and individuals, struggling to find and create a new context in which the stories of Tuscaloosa lives could continue. So many humans fighting despair with a unassailable, generative hope. So many community activists finding ways to serve people outside their social circles and economic milieus. It was all the more stunning because the sentiments, undergirded by this fantastic hope- were genuine.

So it is all the more disturbing to see the endless assortment of lifestyle apartments and condos lining the streets. All the more wrenching to see the plethora of empty lots in Alberta City abandoned by businesses who can no longer afford to build or rent there. All the more disappointing to discover that, well, it's just business as usual here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama- and business as usual, of course, explains why the wealthy and the poor inhabit different parts of town.

Our values rub shoulders with our personal desires. A better way to express this would be to admit that we are so rarely ready with our recyling box that we find ourselves having to drive it to the drop-off rather than putting it out for the waste management companies to pick up. And that's on a good week. We are less perfect than we presume. Teaching my kids about sustainable living is a constant reminder that we could be living more sustainably. While we've managed to get rid of paper towels and napkins, we still can't get our act together on recycling. No one is perfect. If you catch yourself thinking that you might be the exception, sit down and read some Howard Zinn with your kids. That ought to clear your mind real quickly.

The inequality continues. The uneven distribution of educational resources diminishes the likelihood of the neighborhood schools which would require less cross-town traffic and less air pollution. Those who aren't zoned for Rock Quarry set their hearts on the Tuscaloosa Magnet School. Again, there are no easy answers. Every parent wants the best for their children. Every parent hopes their child will do "better" and accomplish more. Yet some children, born into families without money and time, are trapped by the inequality of opportunity. Every time a child hears adults complaining about "welfare moms" or "single moms", he is taught that kids from families on welfare are worthy of his scorn. Few parents say this directly, but no child is so dumb as to misunderstand the difference between what we say publicly and what we mutter in the privacy of our own homes.

"Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree."
                Marian Wright Edelmen

Marian Wright Edelmen, one of the most inspiring Americans that comes to mind, has always argued that being born into money is a matter of luck, not value. We agree in theory, but our actions often contradict our beliefs. It is living among other people- some richer, some poorer- that weaves a web of shared concerns and identity. We live in communities. Sometimes these communities prevent us from loving others in the world. 

Sometimes those communities require rebuilding. Sometimes those communities are torn in half by special interests who see dollar signs where others see a park for their grandchildren. And sometimes the profitable option is not the ethical one. 

As more condos and apartments sprout up to replace the trees torn down by the tornados, I wonder why not even tragedy teaches us the value of a tree. The homo sapiens sapiens has left a legacy of destruction and devastation across the planet. Just say the words "improved property values" and everyone will leave their ethics at the door. It's hard to be hopeful when I look around at where the post-tornado planning has left us in East Tuscaloosa and Alberta City. One thing is certain- the hope always returns. And the way in which it returns has nothing to do with the promises of local politicians and everything to do with the way my kids gobble up everything still beautiful in our world.

A snapshot from my nature journal...

Raking pinestraw.

The king manages the raking scene outside the castle. 

It happened as if by accident.... After Suebee and Pops left, and Carla and Isla hit the road, we found ourselves in the front yard, raking...

Bella was the most eager young raker of the bunch.

She managed to make a pile of her own.

Max, the marvelous leaf blower, blew us away with his earnest efforts.

The king said said it would have been impossible without Max's hard work. I sheepishly agreed. As everyone worked, a man in a red truck drove by seeking pinestraw. We pointed towards the budding piles and he said he would back to collect them. Which he did.

The king and Max used the tarp to haul the huge stacks of pinestraw across the yard. When the tarp was not in use, of course, the girls discovered alternate uses. For example, the tarp became the silver hideaway castle....

And all three ladies agreed to be co-princesses of their silver castle. But princesses in these parts do more tree climbing, mud-pie baking, and gallivanting than tiara-wearing. 

Bella running in triple motion- she kept asking me about this photo and how her head managed to be "over there". Sometimes I wish I had been more serious about physics.

And so the fall day warmed enough to bring a few mosquitos as dusk... Alabama autumns, always beautiful and unpredictable, like the days on our calendar when I agree to accept I cannot control ever minute or millisecond.

Nature journaling and fall leaf loafing: Experiments in learning.

Much of last week was devoted to learning about botany, ecology, and biology. Autumn makes it difficult to ignore the fantastic show of leaves and the cycle of life. So we found ourselves at the University of Alabama Arboretum for two afternoons, identifying trees and nature journaling about gourds and various interesting finding.

If you wonder how I manage to balance the age difference between the little folks, the truth is that I bring along crayons, colored pencils, paper, and, yes, a tricycle. It works most days.

This print of various leaf forms served us well on Thursday- the girls colored the leaves using Max's tree guide. We did our best to color the "fall colors" of each leaf, which ranged from orange to bright red to yellow and back to green.

Milla told me this leaf was actually "a fairy hand".

Max pontificated about chlorophyll and how leaf color is determined in the fall. Then we switched gears and wandered around for a bit. Finally, the ladies found their coloring twitch needed easing, so they colored a printout of the booklet below, which shows the life cycle of a pumpkin. 

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Mini Booklet (PDF)

Botany Tree Identification Nature Journal Page (PDF)

While writing in his nature journal, seeking the sounds of the season, Max observed that no songbirds were chirping- the only noise was that of the wind rustling through the dying tree leaves. "All the birds have migrated, Mom!" he exclaimed. Micah tried to see the good side of our birdless environment, asserting that "all the birds are at the beach and they are eating and playing". Milla assented with a nod.

Poetry in slow motion: acorns, leaves, "pinestraw pasta", and Milla's shoe.

For at least an hour, everyone was busy observing, chatting, giggling, learning, and admiring the changing world around us. As they studied, I jotted down notes for a poem, the little bones of what looks like a skeleton, and promised myself that I would steal time to finish it... later. Always later. 

Learning about stream invertebrates.

Amy's expertise came to mind as we played around with freshwater invertebrates late last week. Max loved this freshwater name trail, so I decided to share it in case other home educators are preparing to watch what happens to local ponds and streams during cold weather. 

OUR KOINONIA EXPERIENCE: A sense of place.

Days long past at Koinonia.

The spiritual kinship between Clarence Jordan and Wendell Berry is hard to escape. Both put a tremendous amount of stock in the importance of community and the beauty (not just the duty) of sacrifice. There were many moments when Wendell's words came to mind as I watched Koinonians share their concerns about the year's pecan harvest and the challenges of shared burdens. 

One of the interns left her book on the outdoor table at Jubilee House....

I am reminded of the poem, "Healing", which Wendell published in a book of essays called What Are People For?. A poignant excerpt:

Good work finds the way between pride and despair.

It graces with health. It heals with grace.

It preserves the given so that it remains a gift.

By it, we lose loneliness:

we clasp the hands of those who go before us, and the hands of those who come after us;

we enter the little circle of each other's arms,

and the larger circle of lovers whose hands are joined in a dance,

and the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments.

Micah before one of the pecan orchards.

This commitment to living for and with others- living alongside nature in a mutually sustaining relationship with humans and creatures- is how a sense of "place" is created and cultivated. As pilgrims to an established place, we pay homage to it through awareness and respect. It is not our "place"- not unless we agree to give up our current lives and accept this shared responsibility- but it is a place we deeply admire. A place that has changed the way we feel the blood rush through our veins. A place that brings to life (and brings into life) many of the ideas that have changed our hearts and minds over the years. 

"Leaf pose" and guided imagery for fall yoga with kids.

The last photo of Max with his unsheared locks.

To the beach and back in less than 64 hours- but it was beautiful and serene, like Heather and Mike in general. Back to the home (which could use cleaning) and the restlessness in us that often needs soothing. Today began with a little yoga, thanks to inspirations from Yoga Kids. 

Tree Pose to Leaf Pose (Child Pose)

Stand with your feet parallel in Mountain Pose. Lift your right foot, bend your right knee, and place the sole of your foot against the inside of your standing leg. Bring your arms up over your head in a V. Wiggle your fingers like leaves on the tree. Bring your right foot back to the ground. Repeat on the other side.

Now imagine that you are the leaves falling from the tree. Slowly drop to the ground and sit on your knees. Fold at your hips, bring your forehead down to the floor, and let your arms rest next to your legs. Pretend to be a leaf on the ground on a fall day.

Then a little guided imagery, which we used once we got back inside. It didn't make sense to me for the kids to close their eyes and "imagine" the leaves they could just as easily see all around them.

For those who haven't tried guided imagery before, it helps to bring people of all shapes, sizes, and ages to deeper relaxation by using sensory descriptions that engage the imagination. Studies show that guided imagery helps calm bodies, focus minds, and boosts creativity. Yoga Kids shared a terrific fall-themed guided imagery exercise to help little people visualize and experience the season. It is an excerpt from Imaginations for Kids by Carolyn Clarke coming out at the end of this fall season. In the meantime, get inspired by Carolyn's website.

A Fall Day

Imagine it is the first day of fall.
Go for a walk and notice the cool feeling of the air.
Imagine that you see a squirrel gathering nuts.
You hear the sound of birds off in the distance.
You see a flock of geese flying south, to warmer weather.
Now imagine that you see the most colorful tree you’ve ever seen.
Walk up to the tree and hear the crunch of the leaves under your feet.
Lie down under the tree.
Feel the leaves under your body.
Take a deep breath and see if you can smell the leaves.
Look up at the leaves that are still on the tree.
Can you see the blue sky through them?
Picture all the colors of the leaves.
Red, orange, yellow, and purple.
Imagine that the wind gently blows a few leaves off the tree.
Watch them fall slowly and land softly on the ground.
Now imagine that the leaves start to fall onto you.
They cover you in a relaxing and cozy leaf blanket.
Imagine that red leaves fall on your feet and your feet relax.
Orange leaves fall on your legs, and your legs relax.
Yellow leaves fall on your belly, and your belly relaxes.
Purple leaves fall on your arms and hands, and they relax, too.
Enjoy how relaxed your whole body feels.
Lie here under your colorful leaf blanket, enjoying this fall day.