The best woodland plants often come into their own in spring. Light falls through branches that haven’t yet come into leaf, bathing the plants below in a golden glow. The show begins with snowdrops and aconites and transforms week by week, with primroses, forget-me-nots and wood anemones blooming in a non-stop carpet of colour.
One privileged and also incredibly bulky result of being part of a family that’s been in the U.S. for multiple generations is that we’ve had time to accumulate a lot of stuff. My mother’s house is full of drawers of mismatched china, etched crystal wine goblets, and both the silver my great-grandmother got for herself when she was around 28 and figured she’d be single for the rest of her life, as well as the silver she received at her wedding. What an honor to be the stewards of these antiques — and also what a pain in the ass.
It’s a pain because tradition has it that things like wedding china and crystal are only to be used on “special occasions,” which for most people translates to “never.” You have your Ikea or Crate & Barrel dishware for everyday use, and then your nice china sits in some cupboard and gathers dust even though you barely have enough room in your apartment as is, because it’s so nice and so delicate. And if you do manage to find an occasion to use it, there’s the hassle of cleaning it, because everyone says you shouldn’t run it through the dishwasher.
As can clearly be seen from history and current events. it only takes one person to improve or totally screw up the world. It seems incredible to us that one person can have such an outsized effect on the world. Perhaps that is what leads to so many conspiracy theories around major events. We don’t want to believe that one person can cause all that damage and strife and yet it is clear from our experience that they truly can – for good and for ill.
While we may not feel as important as those who appear in the news daily, there is just as much a chance for us to change the world as anyone. Sure, we might not start a war, but we have a direct impact on those we personally touch every day. We affect our family, our children, our co-workers, our government representatives – everyone who hears our voice or reads our words. Have you ever thought about how important that is? Have you ever considered your impact on others and how you are changing the world action by action? If you are like me, probably not.
Ignoring our importance
As individuals, we often think we can’t have an impact on the lives are others. Who’s going to listen to me? Who’s going to ask my advice? I don’t know anything. The truth goes much deeper though. Every action you take can have a deep impact on others. Are you helping people to rise in their lives or pushing them down? Are you making the world better or worse? Are you acting ethically or taking advantage of everyone around you?
Far too many people don’t even think about their impact on others. They simply “do”, hour after hour, day after day. They litter the streets. They deface signs, buses, and other public infrastructure. The worst lie and steal and cheat their way through life and have a deep impact on everyone around them. While this is a deep issue of human nature that will probably never be solved, it is important to look at these deep issues as a way of illuminating the small issues we create every day for those close to us.
Are we just wandering through our days, doing whatever occurs to us, without any regard for friends and family? Are we treating ourselves poorly out of neglect? Have we disassociated from life and wandered through it as if in a fog? Perhaps. I am sure you have noticed people who do this. You can probably recognize times when you did it to yourself. Of course, recognizing the problem is the first step to solving it.
Change for the better
We drastically need a change. We need to see our importance in the world instead of ignoring it. Nearly everyone, short of the biggest narcissists, downplays their knowledge, their skills, and their abilities. We call it humility. Yet some take it to the level of debasement. We ignore and disclaim our individual talents whenever anyone praises us. We claim “luck”, not talent – succeeding by accident, not device. We do everything we can to NOT be the nail that stands up and then gets hammered down and, in doing that, we limit ourselves and our ability to do good in the world.
It only takes one person to start a war, but it also only takes one person to start peace. Imagine the impact you have on one person’s life. A welcoming smile. Cash for a job well done. Praise for those who deserve it and help for those who need it. Each minute of each day you can impart your best effects on those around you if you only take the time to recognize it – if you only paid attention to your actions instead of sleepwalking through your days.
Perhaps if we all did this on a regular basis we wouldn’t be dealing with those who use their power, persuasion, and manipulative powers for evil. Perhaps instead we could promote to power those who truly deserve it and have more interest in the world and not simply their own. Perhaps we could achieve our own rue, place in the world ourselves? Perhaps the good might be made to outweigh the evil?
A request
I ask you to think deeply about the effect that your words, habits, and actions have not only on you, but those close to you, those near you, and those you may never realize you affected. When I take the time to think about this, my effect on the world alternately heartens me and frightens me. We all have far more effect on the world than we realize and using that effect without conscious thought is a dangerous way to live, both for you and those around you. If you don’t notice it, you may never see the damage you cause or the joy you create. For me, to ignore both is a true crime against humanity.
In a clearing in the Amsterdamse Bos, a forest on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, is a “tree hub” where hundreds of saplings, among them hazelnut, sweet cherry, field maple, beech, chestnut and ash, are organised by type.
The idea behind it is simple: every day unwanted tree saplings were being cleared and thrown away when those young trees could be carefully collected and transplanted to where they are wanted.
Volunteers have already collected thousands of saplings cleared from woodland paths and those unlikely to survive in the forest shade. On Saturday, on donate a seedling day, people will be encouraged to take unwanted saplings or cuttings from their own gardens and give them to 200 tree hub locations across the Netherlands.
Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to make effective decisions. Yet no one really teaches us what it means to make consistently high-quality decisions.
I started working at an intelligence agency on August 28, 2001. Two weeks later, the world would never be the same. 1
My computer science degree lost its value after a few promotions. I came from a world of 1s and 0s, not people, families, and interpersonal dynamics.
Just out of school, I found that my decisions affected not only my employees but their families. Not only my country but other countries. However, there was one small problem. I had no idea how to make smart decisions. I had no idea how to reduce errors. I only knew I had an obligation to make the best decisions I could. But where do you start?
Rewilding will be crucial for tackling the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Most often, we talk about rewilding on a grand scale—on farms and large tracts of land, and in wider bioregions. But rewilding in gardens can be just as important.
There are many reasons why we should rewild on a domestic scale. It’s useful to think small, in addition to taking the broader view, since even small steps taken at home can help improve our environments. Thinking more “wildly” can help us find solutions for the major challenges we face.
By techiq@welchwrite.com (Douglas E. Welch) on Mar 30, 2022 09:47 am
Consider the paintbrush: simple enough for a child, complex enough for an Old Master. That's what any artistic tool should strive for, and the art of programming deserves a tool that's more creative, more alive. Joy.js is a tool for making tools like that.
We all may not need to plant in such abundance, but these tips could help you create a smaller tulip garden just for your own uses or create an amazing Spring focal point in your garden. — Douglas
One of the most beneficial skills you can learn in life is how to consistently put yourself in a good position. The person who finds themselves in a strong position can take advantage of circumstances while others are forced into a series of poor choices.
Strong positions are not an accident. Weak positions aren’t bad luck.
Telling someone they need to put themselves in a strong position is useless. Everyone knows they need a strong foundation to build a house that can weather a storm (or a wolf, thank you Three Little Pigs) but not everyone knows how we can create that foundation.
The answer is as simple as it is frustrating. The position you find yourself in today is the accumulation of the small choices that you’ve been making for years.
When the much-anticipated summer season finally arrives, make the most of your garden time with a checklist of ongoing tasks that will keep your plants healthy year-round.
Clean up Much of your clean up might have taken place in the spring. However, if winter rolls straight into summer in your part of the country, or you haven’t had the time or motivation to tackle the task, get busy pulling weeds, mowing the lawn and cleaning the patio furniture. Avoid harsh chemicals and instead borrow a pressure washer to blast the deck, fencing, porch and paver stones. Also, tidy up any concrete blocks along your raised beds.
By techiq@welchwrite.com (Douglas E. Welch) on Mar 28, 2022 11:54 am
The MIDI format has long been used to create some banging electronic music, so it’s refreshing to see how [John P. Miller] applied the standard in his decidedly analog self-playing robotic xylophone.
Framed inside a fetching Red Oak enclosure, the 25-key instrument uses individual solenoids for each key, meaning that it has no problem striking multiple bars simultaneously. This extra fidelity really helps in reproducing the familiar melodies via the MIDI format. The tracks themselves can be loaded onto the device via SD card, and selected for playback with character LCD and rotary knob.
The software transposes the full MIDI music spectrum of a particular track into a 25-note version compatible with the xylophone. Considering that a piano typically has 88 keys, some musical concessions are needed to produce a recognizable playback, but overall it’s an enjoyable musical experience.
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