So yesterday, in the blazing West Coast heat wave we've been having, I worked six hours shoveling dirt in a trauma surgeon's backyard, building a mini-waterfall in her Japanese garden.
It felt great to just do physical labor in the baking sun...I had called into my battered woman's shelter job saying I was sick in order to work for Nicole, my favorite female trauma surgeon...indeed, the only female trauma surgeon I know...she is a great inspiration to me, since my mom pounded the belief into my head that women can't handle high-pressure, stress-laden jobs like being trauma surgeons. It's funny, a year ago when I was living with Nicole and being a live-in nanny for her son Griffin and I'd call my mom and talk about Nicole, even then my mom would say things like "women just don't handle that kind of stress that well..." and "men do those jobs better..." I would say things like "mom, I'm living with a woman right now who loves the adrenaline rush of that kind of job...Nicole handles stress really well.." And, at the same time, I am in school for midwifery and my sister Eileen was in school to become a Physician's Assistant, also in a trauma unit. Still, my mom stubbornly believes men would do better at these jobs.
So needless to say, I jump to help Nicole on her projects, whenever she calls me. I love working at her house, both because she is so inspiring to me, and because I love Griffin. Griffin is the ten-yr old male version of myself; thin, geeky, with few friends and a lot of outrageous fantasy stories to tell...he's awesome! So while working, I invited Griffin to go see the new Chronicals of Narnia: Prince Caspian with me. I was very excited; as a kid about Griffin's age, this was one of my top favorite books. I had a crush on the Caspian in the book...something about a kid heading up a revolution involving facing his evil uncle head on seemed really sexy to little kid Carrot...hell, I still fall for the revolutionary boys. And I have to stay, the guy who plays Caspian in the movie is pretty damn sexy too; reminds me of my sexy, beautiful rewilding friend Cloud..if Caspian had dreadlocks.
The best part of the movie, to me, was the obvious environmental messages that C.S. Lewis didn't even try to hide. For a writer in the early to mid fifties, he was amazingly concerned about the environment, as was his friend and fellow writer, JR Tolkien. (Yes, that's right, Tolkien and Lewis where friends, and often sat down at a pub together to talk about their writing, which probably explains some of the similarities of these guys writing...they where old-timey Sci-Fi/Fantasy geeks.
Anyway, I love the ideas of the trees and river Nyads and Dyrads going to a deep sleep once the environmentally destructive Talmarians take over Narnia; before the Talmarians take over, the trees of Narnia can speak and dance, and likewise, can the rivers. Lucy, with the help of Aslan has to awaken the trees and the river in order to save Narnia, there is a magical scene where a river-god destroys much of the Talmarianan army and a bridge that they have constructed...I started cheering inside and thought to myself "we need to awaken that river god to destroy some of the dams around here!" Also, the scene where the trees storm the Talmarianan army, grabbing people with their roots and strangling them made me cheer out loud; if we could awaken trees like that, well, for one thing, we would have to stop treating them like a commodity because we would know for sure that they where alive, and also, wouldn't it be great if loggers had to fear the trees themselves?
As it is, I guess it is our responsibility to keep speaking for the trees..until perhaps the trees find their tongues...on that note, I'm off to an Earth First! meeting...
Love ya,
Carrot
I guess I never realized things like that until they are pointed out...but it's a great thing...make tomorrow's leaders more aware of the issues. I love it!
I can be pretty slow in these things too. I never would have even thought about environmentalism while watching a movie. It's so cool that people notice these things. Thanks for pointing it out! Now when I watch the movie I'll be making mental notes of the connections!
I have yet to see the movie but it sounds cool. Your blog psot left me imagining loggers running for their life like in a scary movie when an aggressive tree tries to capture him for giving it a paper cut.
Is Carrot's friend's real name Cloud or is that a screen name?
Do people really have a question about the livingness of trees? I was pretty sure that was a well established fact. The trees do speak but its hard to understand the whispers of the wind.
Carrot is a good Lorax speaking for the trees
~T
all truths are easy to understand once discovered; the point is to discover them ~galileo
I didn't have the money or time to go see it when it came out, but a friend loaned it to me recently. I didn't read the last bit when you started to delve into the movie more since I don't want to spoil my experience. I love C.S. Lewis' books and the movies make me love the stories even more. I can't wait to see Prince Caspian.
Also, that stinks that your mom thinks women can't handle high stress jobs. Maybe she feels she wouldn't be able to if everyone always told her the same thing as she was growing up.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
It's sad that your mom feels that way about women. That means she herself feels inferior to men. It's heartbreaking, really. I'm glad you and your sister don't buy into that!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
but we continue to act as though they where nothing more then commodities, so I don't think we have that kind of knowing in our souls...most of us don't cry when we see felled trees...as I think we should. If we all felt that way, toilet paper companies wouldn't still be logging old growth forest to make commercial rolls of toilet paper...anyway, that breaks my heart, so I won't say any more about it at the moment.
I agree that trees speak as well..when I am feeling really upset or depressed, I find I get the most comfort from this beautiful pine tree down the street from me; I go snuggle up to him and tell him everything; and I know this sounds crazy, but I can feel what he is trying to say back...I pick up tree vibes or tree energy, I guess, and it is always loving and reassuring. I have had angry energy from trees as well...the first time I experienced tree energy, I was camping in Ocala National Forest with a group of people who where being very disrespectful to the woods; they where drinking excessively and using drugs and staying up all night playing obnoxious music; I myself had been eating acid and I began to sense what the trees thought of us, and they where clearly pissed off. I apologized to one tree in particular and spent several hours hugging it and reassuring it that from that point on, my life would be devoted to the trees...I haven't exactly been good to my word, but I've been improving since that time. Those trees where sort of a miserable lot in general; they'd had a lot of logging in their forest and where pretty fed up with people altogether.
Most of the trees here in Portland seem pretty happy; they know they are appreciated and loved by the city folks who live among them. But sometimes I see a tree planted somewhere in the city all by itself; and it is sending out lonely energy...trees get really lonely if they aren't around other trees.
Anyway, as for Cloud, I would say it is his "real" name now; he's gone by Cloud for so many years now, his other name no longer has any relevance...it isn't the name his mother gave him at birth, but he's a Native and he believes in reaching a certain age and choosing a name for yourself and that is what he has done. He went on a sort of "vision quest" and came back with the name Cloud....it really fits him so much better then his childhood name, and most of his adult friends don't even know his original name. I myself am pondering a name change, possibly just going by Carrot everywhere, not just online.
Love ya,
Carrot