What Would Thoreau Say?

Today's NY Times made reference to a story in Politico about a company that sells books by the foot or yard.  This company will put together a nice library based on color of books, subject, size etc. and ship it to you lock, stock and barrel. Originally a company built around providing walls of books for show houses or hotel lobbies, the company has exploded some 40% since the pandemic started.  Why? Because people want good backgrounds - wait for it - for their zoom calls. Yea.  Zoom calls.   We've all seen the backgrounds of the talking heads on tv.  Usually they have libraries behind them.  If they've written a book, there might be multiple copies visible; at least one of them stands upright with the cover facing the camera.  I thought those were real libraries.  Turns out they might be rent-a-libraries according to this company. Really. People are buying whole libraries just to look good on zoom. 2020, we love ya... The story got me thinking about books and my library. 

In our last post we wrote about the dog biscuits and water we leave out for our four legged friends walking through downtown.  Not only did I receive more comment on that post than any other, but many shared it with others.  It was the highest readership ever for What Would Thoreau Say? This morning, now that Bapu has returned (more below) I began to think about the relationship between animals and their owners.  Why did the story about Camo and Riley get such a reaction?  Why did people tell me of their pets or that perhaps they would now leave treats for dogs near their home?  What is it that binds us so to our pets? I think it's the unconditional love and loyalty that we get from them. In the church I served until recently as Lay Pastor, (you can find the post How the Hell Did I Become Pastor? if you scroll down on this blog) I used to say sometimes before services that in this church we celebrated the "unlimited welcome, unwavering hope and unconditional love of God "

So, yesterday I sat down and wrote 1000 words about environmental action for a post I was going to put up to follow the last one.  It was inspired writing!  Pulitzer prize kinda' writing!  Man, it was good.  We were all going to read it and run out and join Sierra Club and buy a new electric car.  That's how good it was. Then Riley and Camo left a gift at the front door and all of that seemed irrelevant. We live in the historic district of Leesburg, Virginia and we leave dog biscuits and water out for our four legged friends who come by as part of their daily walk with their owners.  Every morning, whoever gets up first, heads out to change the water and make sure there are enough small and large Milk Bones in the box in front of the house to take care of our guests.  (And it's only Milk Bones.  We've tried the designer kinds, the ones you get at the Farmer's Market, and we could swear we have seen dogs turn up their noses at them.  It's like preferring McDonald

  Restoration Four years ago, in What Would Thoreau Say? I wrote ‘what do we do now?’ after the world was turned upside down by our presidential election. I predicted four years of hell.   I was right. Now things are different.   I really believe the restoration of America is possible.   But only if we also restore truth as truth, something that has been impossible these last four years.   Of all the terrible things that have happened since 2016, nothing, in my opinion,  nothing, compares to what has happened to the rule of truth. I refuse to give up however.   I believe truth can be restored, we can be better, and we can make a commitment to take care of each other. Joanna Macy, one of the world’s great ecologists and Buddhist scholar writes of ‘the Great Turning.’   She believes that we don’t have to stay stuck as we are and that with intentional action, we can turn things.   Her analysis is much more detailed than I want to offer here.   But simply summarized, the turning