Aspen leaves quake.
Wild delphinium riot blues.
Columbine blaze the trail in clumps along the way.
Watching the wind quake aspen leaves , I wondered about leadership, about tribal leaders.
I wondered about leaders in tribes of small people.
Not presidents of hundreds of millions and of corporations worth hundreds of billions.
Tribal leaders were, I’d bet, expected to be wise, fair, honest and “of the people”.
I’d bet a stinker, a liar, a wealth-grubber, one who enriched himself and his family, would soon face the wolves. Literally.
I’m watching what’s happening in the United States.
Like all cultures, we have the men and women before us to thank for where we are, and the wealth of our natural resources. Until recently, we also had the benefit of resource wealth far larger than our numbers could spoil, consume, and eliminate.
Now, we seem to have forgotten to steward our wealth. We have forgotten to honor our elders, and to live in a way that demonstrates that honor.
We have raised up leaders that relish setting people upon each other while they enrich themselves, leaders who take pride in environmental pillage.
There is no such thing as “arriving”. The United States never arrived at greatness, never lost it, will never be made great again by the likes of the Trump administration.
We do believe that we have always strived for greatness, based in equality and justice for all, hard work, free from religious tyranny, free from religious tyrants and demagogues.
But sometimes what we believe and truth are far, far apart.
The fact is that as humans, each of us is not that far apart from each other. We like to laugh. We like to eat. We like to create useful things. We love natural beauty. We do like competition, but we don’t like destructive conflict. We don’t like free-loaders, cheats, liars and thieves.
We are not each other’s enemies.
