Is Environmentalism Fun?

Well, I'm not proud of it, but tonight, I was watching Futurama with my 12 year old son. One of the lines tonight went something like, if it's not fun, it must be environmentalism. It was cute, I must say. Are we too serious about being green? Do we forget to have fun? When I was little, it was ecoloby and e-day that mattered. We had a lot of fun cleaning up the school grounds, planting flowers, studying the environment in science class, studying natural resources of different countries in social studies, it was really fun. I'm not sure when everything got so serious. I found some materials I had from Earth Day a few years ago, called Pulp Fashion, which featured a fashion show of clothes made from recycled materials. I loved the business suit made of old lawyers briefs, and yes, even briefs made of briefs. We don't have things like that any more. I used to like to use dried leaves to make collages, and I layered them to make paper doll dresses. It's a shame this kind of nature craft is a dying art.

On the bright side, the Chinook is in the air this week, and the snow, several feet of it, is slowly melting, which is good. Maybe the rivers won't swell to overflowing. Nature can be overwhelming; The Weather Channel teaches us that, but so does good writing. A good travel diary inspires one to admire natural attractions of all kinds, and nature writers like Annie Dillard bring a whole new perspective to all things natural. I just finished Harlan Coben's The Woods, and he really caputred the feeling of the forest being itself alive, The Forest Primeval, as Longfellow said. The Woods became another character for Coben, and they loomed, and skulked, and expressed themselves. It was a little haunted wood from The Wizard of OZ in a good way.

I also heard birds chirp today, and am looking for those robins. Hope everyone is well. Till next time.