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Monday: rain, book group
Apr. 27th, 2020 05:29 pmIt rained today, so I did not walk with M., but we did hang out.
A. had a pretty good school day, better than expected given that this week is about poetry and she is pretty unhappy about figurative language in general. But things went pretty smoothly.
I will have book group soon! Fortunately, someone reminded me to send the meeting invite out. I forgot.
We read _Eager_ by Ben Goldfarb, which is about using/letter beavers (to) reshape the landscape. There is quite a lot of history (because of the whole hat thing, mostly, and really, to think of all the damage done in the name of hats is truly a shocking exercise) about the beaver trade, and why native Americans in some parts of the New World were happy to trap and kill beaver and native Americans in drier parts of the New World would not under any circumstances.
There is a lot in this book about activism, and conflict among people who are basically in agreement (people who care about the environment, climate change, etc.) but who disagree about tactics and strategy. Even if you gave not one chewed willow about beavers, you might still find a lot of value in this book as a practical exercise in political science. But the book is really good, because you learn a ton about beavers, and about how beavers are quite willing, even programmed, to do a lot of things that are otherwise expensive but necessary: recharging aquifers, ponding water, creating wetland habitat, moderating floods and water temperature, sequestering carbon, slowing runoff (of water, and all the nitrogen it often carries). All of the environmental goals that seem incredibly unattainable turn out to be the sort of things beavers are good at. Who knew! I felt better about the future after reading this than I have in years.
A. had a pretty good school day, better than expected given that this week is about poetry and she is pretty unhappy about figurative language in general. But things went pretty smoothly.
I will have book group soon! Fortunately, someone reminded me to send the meeting invite out. I forgot.
We read _Eager_ by Ben Goldfarb, which is about using/letter beavers (to) reshape the landscape. There is quite a lot of history (because of the whole hat thing, mostly, and really, to think of all the damage done in the name of hats is truly a shocking exercise) about the beaver trade, and why native Americans in some parts of the New World were happy to trap and kill beaver and native Americans in drier parts of the New World would not under any circumstances.
There is a lot in this book about activism, and conflict among people who are basically in agreement (people who care about the environment, climate change, etc.) but who disagree about tactics and strategy. Even if you gave not one chewed willow about beavers, you might still find a lot of value in this book as a practical exercise in political science. But the book is really good, because you learn a ton about beavers, and about how beavers are quite willing, even programmed, to do a lot of things that are otherwise expensive but necessary: recharging aquifers, ponding water, creating wetland habitat, moderating floods and water temperature, sequestering carbon, slowing runoff (of water, and all the nitrogen it often carries). All of the environmental goals that seem incredibly unattainable turn out to be the sort of things beavers are good at. Who knew! I felt better about the future after reading this than I have in years.