I Speak for the Trees!

At nearly 13, Kobe is quite accustomed to seeing me cry at movies. Instead of embarassed, he was intrgued why I silently wiped tears during The Lorax. After the movie he quietly asked, was it others' greed? Was it the beauty of nature? The displacement of innocent critters? The loss of land that made tears trickle down my face? Uh huh.Yes, yes, yes and yes. That's why I take you and your brother to see nature and National Parks as often as I can. I don't know how much longer nature will be there at the rate we are developing, fragmenting and destroying the wild lands we have forgotten we reply upon so much. In fact, at one point in the movie, when the Lorax sent off the animals to hopefully find another home, it was like any tragic Exodus you have ever seen. There was a moment of silence and I wanted to scream, "Do you get it now?! This is happening! WAKE UP!" Instead, I whispered it through my tears.I told Kobe about my fight for the wildlands and wildlife on Banning Ranch and the oil companies who are now mowing Encelia, a plant that serves as building block for rare Coastal Sage Scrub, days before the nesting season for protected California Gnatcher and Cactus Wren, so when the developers show the biologists the land where they want to put a resort hotel, 1300 homes and a sport complex, all they point to is dirt. "Nothing to save here." Not anymore, you asshole.In the movie when the Once-ler chopped down the first tree, the Lorax and the critters solemnly placed stones around the stump, as if in honor of its life. This harkened me back to so many Wicca writings, workshops and rituals that celebrate and revere nature as a guide, a teacher, a mother. Though I am no ecologist, Starhawk did once say Wicca is the Religion of Ecology, and Aldo Leopold spoke a great truth when he said, "'One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."So boys, I will hound you to turn off every light when you aren't in the room, unplug the toaster and other appliances you aren't using, put on a sweatshirt instead of the heater, no plastic bottles, no plastic bags, no paper plates, bricks in the toliet tank, local produce and more. Because dammit, I SPEAK FOR THE TREES!!!