ALL is in NATURE

[Michael Grove]

WE ARE a circumstance of NATURE 

                                                                     Leonardo da Vinci

There can be no better symbolic representation of the fact that we are

individually and collectively dependent on nature and, to that matter,

interdependent on and of  every relationship which exists in nature -

than the example of growing an alder tree from seed as a bonsai  

Over 95% of our body is water. To stay healthy we

have to drink good water. Our DNA is the same DNA

as the tree. The tree breathes what we exhale. When

the tree exhales we need what the tree exhales.

We have a common destiny with the tree.

                                                                              Floyd Red Crow Westerman

Man plants the seed - the alder tree grows - absorbing carbon

from the atmosphere - storing nitrogen in its root sacs -

exhaling oxygen - on which man's survival is predated -

just by adding water - and so the cycle of  LIFE continues 

USE BY HUMANS

The catkins of some alder species have a degree of edibility,^[2] and may be rich in protein. Reported to have a bitter and unpleasant taste, they are more useful for survival purposes. The wood of certain alder species is often used to smoke various food items, especially salmon and other seafood.

Most of the pilings that form the foundation of Venice were made from alder trees.^[3]

Alder bark contains the anti-inflammatory salicin, which is metabolized into salicylic acid in the body.^[4] 

Native Americans used red alder bark (Alnus rubra) to treat poison oak, insect bites, and skin irritations. Blackfeet Indians used an infusion made from the bark of red alder to treat lymphatic disorders and tuberculosis. Recent clinical studies have verified that red alder contains betulin and lupeol, compounds shown to be effective against a variety of tumors.^[5]

The inner bark of the alder, as well as red osier dogwood, or chokecherry, was also used by Native Americans in their smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick, to improve the taste of the bearberry leaf.^[6]

Alder is illustrated in the coat of arms for the Austrian town of Grossarl.

Electric guitars, most notably the Fender Jazz Bass, Fender Precision Bass, Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster, have been built with alder bodies since the 1950s. Alder is appreciated for its claimed tight and even balanced tone, especially when compared to mahogany, and has been adopted by many electric guitar manufacturers.

As a hardwood, alder is used in making furniture, cabinets, and other woodworking products. For example, in the television series Northern Exposure 1992 season 3 episode "Things Become Extinct", Native American Ira Wingfeather makes duck flutes out of Alder tree branches while Ed Chigliak films.

NO RESPECT for your environment - NO RESPECT for YOURSELF

.

[Michael Grove]

Well we're obviously already embedded in a complex web of

relationships, both with our own kind and with many entities very

different from us. How then is it that we don’t notice them, don’t

honour our relationships with the plants and animals and all

the other elemental presences (soils, rainclouds, rivers...) who

support and nourish us? It can only be because somehow we're

oblivious to that direct, unmediated layer of carnal exchange which

is always already going on - because we're oblivious to the bodily

level of our existence. It is my body that steadily drinks of the

oxygen breathed out by all the green and growing plants, and

my body that breathes out the carbon dioxide these plants

steadily draw upon in order to photosynthesise and flourish.

It is this body, this muscled flesh that rests in intimate relationship

with the tree-trunk I’m now sitting on. From walking barefoot in the

garden or wandering through all these arroyos, my toes are well

acquainted with the life and texture of the soil. But we don't live

our body's life anymore. We live a life of abstractions, of mental

cogitations massively influenced by all of the human-made 

artefacts and signals that surround us. We're incessantly reflecting

off of our own reflections. We have been taught NOT to trust our

senses, and our direct sensory experience. The senses, which are

our most instinctive animal access to the world - our eyes, our ears,

our tongue, our nostrils - these magic organs open us directly onto

the more-than-human field! Yet we’ve been taught not to trust any

of these powers; we're told that the senses lie, we're taught in

school that the senses are deceptive.

                                           

David Abram during an interview with Derrick Jensen  entitled ...                                            

Alliance for Wild Ethics || The Perceptual Implications of GAIA

 

 

[Michael Grove]

AN ALDER LEAF, LOOSENED BY WIND, IS DRIFTING OUT WITH THE TIDE. 

As it drifts, bumps into the slender leg of a great blue heron staring intently through the rippled

surface, then drifts on. The heron raises one leg out of the water and replaces it, a single step.

As I watch I, too, am drawn into the spread of silence. Slowly, a bank of cloud approaches,

slipping its bulged and billowing texture over the earth, folding the heron and the alder trees

and my gazing body into the depths of a vast breathing being, enfolding us all within a common

flesh, a common story now bursting with rain.

David Abram - The Spell of the Sensuous.