I’ve long appreciated how complex life is. One has only to consider the Monarch butterfly’s life—not just complex but impossibly so. Scientists have unravelled nearly all of that story but that understanding makes it no less remarkable. And about this time, every year they begin to gather and fly thousands of miles to spend the winter in a small area in the mountains of Mexico. It is the first time any of them have made the journey, guided by the “map,” etched into a microscopic speck in their brain that probably communicates with the magnetic fields of the planet.

Like the monarch I have a map inside of myself that guides me through the years—with that trust in life I recognize the way the snow lays on the branches of the Black locust and the way vibrant flowers of the Red maple greet spring. In many cases I know the road and the way as true (like the lead photograph of one of my favorite roads in Kent Corners) but much of life is new and unfamiliar. When I see such, it requires my puzzling it out to recognize what is true, as I did with the ice patterns I found on a pond several years ago. Complex and real, all based on a reality that has been true for millions of years.

Still, the problems we humans have caused in the world loom with endless immensity. Most days it seems any of my actions to alter things are insignificant. The temptation is to throw up my hands and stay in bed. But the costs of doing nothing are too great.

I may not have all the answers but I know what a lie is. How? Because I too have more than once spoken lies. But these days way too much of what I am hearing from a horrifying large group of people is so obviously not true. They are telling us and each other lies! Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are not eating pets! New born babies are not being executed. Schools are not performing operations to change the sex of children. The truth is, unless you have a physical condition called color blindness, you would not call the color of the sky anything but blue—even if Trump said it was purple or green. So why are so many of us lying about other truths, repeating lies of a magnitude comparable to what was once relegated only to Orwell’s 1984?

I trust life to be remarkably stable because it is diverse and each part of it plays a role in the whole. Yes, changes come, some very complex or even painful, but they are accommodated as the simple, shared truths in which we all live and, in time, die. And when I have trouble seeing what is true, I check in with those I love who know me well. Can the sky sometimes be other than blue? Of course! I delight in watching a stunning sunset with others, even one that is upside down and reflected in the water!

To help stop the lies, let’s make sure that Trump and Vance are never again in the White House. The way to do that is to make certain you and your friends and family are all registered to vote, with a foolproof plan to do so, and then that we all VOTE. We also need to help others vote, in particular young people, Blacks, Latino, those who have been incarcerated (where legal), and Republicans who are just sick and tired of all this MAGA nonsense, anyone who has felt they are not part of the solution.

I have a very knowledgable friend who suggests that the more than one million Latino people now living in North Carolina who when they vote will turn that state toward the future. He suggests that Mi Familia Vota is an excellent organization to support in this work, both there and in Arizona, so I ask you to make a contribution to them, small or large, as together we honor the truth of life. Thank you and please share this post with others.

15 Sep This entry was published on September 15, 2024 at 4:59 pm. It’s filed under Ecosystem, Ice, John Snell, John Snell Photographer, Photograph, Reflections, Sunset, Vermont, www.johnsnell.photography and tagged Hatians, JD Vance, Latino, lies, Mi Familia Vota, monarch butterfly, Ohio, Republicans, Sardonis, Springfield, Trump, truth, vote. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.