Eyes open, I could not leave the bed for a long time this morning, sheets tossed aside, legs heavy but restless. Hungover from the news of Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, I just couldn’t move because I could not understand.
“Look, look!” I wanted to scream out into the air. “This is all so precious!” This life, this breath, this earth.
But I didn’t. I was silent and sinking. So I switched to automatic pilot, like we all can do at times, and I reached for my iphone. Good morning, Instagram.
And there, I found my French friends quoting the new president, Emmanuel Macron.
“Make our planet great again.”
“There is no plan B because there is no planet B.”
I listened to his speech and cried.
And then I got out of bed.
My camera is my witness, my words are my ally. I walked into the sun with both and this is what I am finding found. It is not anything revolutionary. Just some photographs taken by a lost girl on a bright provençal morning and phrases scribbled as the day goes to bed.
But I share them just in case you are lying down defeated too. Rise up.
We know the truth. And we can keep fighting to keep it.
(Look really closely. Can you see the tiny red spider in the crook of the “arm” hanging down?)
I love you, Mamma Earth. Be patient with us, please. We are young, and at times, still so foolish.
Here is a part of the speech that moved me so deeply.
For my friends in the States, if you would like, there is a petition to sign in protest: here.
It is up to us, friends. It is up to us.
With much Love and Gratitude,
Heather
Angie, I hear you but that is not at all what I am writing/photographing about here today. What I am saying is positive and not devisive. For anyone.
People want to save the flowers but not take their own trash off the beach. We just enduring the oxymoronic Happy Memorial Day weekend at our Sarasota, Florida beaches. When I tell people I have not owned a clothes dryer since I moved to Florida they either don't believe me or think it is totally impossible…yes, here in sunny Florida. Yes, I live a condo w/o a back 40. Children must be dropped off at the very door of the school/schoolyard, not even a 10 minute walk away car park and cars must run engine/a/c as they wait to pick up same children. And they so love flowers buy Round Up etc to kill the weeds and everything else as rain washes it into stream, mangroves and the ocean. And my about average in so many ways county, voted for Trump abd then on to the galas for education, cancer, and sealife.
I didn't see it live but agree it is horrible. As were the hundreds of pictures of President Obama being hung, beaten, with a Monkey Head and worse. With very little outrage. And then there were the two nooses found in National Museum of African American History this week.
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Danny was a friend and colleague of mine. Yes, beheading jokes make me vomit.
Heather, your photos are beautiful and I agree 1000%.
I heard a very enlightening podcast, an interview with Katharine Hayhoe (if you want to google it the headline is A Christian Climate Scientist's Mission to Convert Nonbelievers). Here is the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=319831143
Hayhoe's point is that people don't disagree about climate change; what they fight against tooth and nail is anything that feels like a decline in their standard of living. If they think they can have everything they have now, without pollution plus cheaper and perhaps better, then they are OK with fighting climate change.
It makes me realize that I can't tell people to do things for the good of the planet or humanity or future generations. Some people just don't care. They care only about themselves, now. So they need a different message. I think the way to succeed is to deliver on that message, that these selfish people can do things to reduce climate change without making personal sacrifice. Already, the economics are starting to bear it out. (See: another New York magazine article headlined "Everything Conservatives Said About the Paris Climate Agreeement Is Already Wrong": http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/everything-conservatives-said-about-paris-is-already-wrong.html
Well, the most potently wry comment concerning the Paris Agreement news came from the host of NPR's "Marketplace", who began, yesterday afternoon, with:
"Okay folks, how has Trump proved Bogie wrong?………yup, you guessed it……we will NOT always have Paris".
As for Kathie Griffin?… I never knew Daniel Pearl, but several of my friends were actual friends with him. We all know of the many other beheadings by ISIS, "DASH", whatever.
I saw the Griffin Potograph and simply thought "WHAT were you thinking?…."
Hard times, aren't these?…..
sincerely, and best wishes (as always) to you, Heather, in your obvious search for various sorts of peace…..
david terry
Hi Heather,
Thank you for posting this. I feel sick, disgusted, and, yes, embarrassed that he is our president. I'm going to take a cue from you and go out and photograph some beauty this afternoon to offset the ugliness in Washington D.C.
And know, that many of us here in the U.S. are doing all we can to counteract Trump's recklessness.
Heather, I was equally as horrified when I saw the photograph of a purported comedienne holding the severed head (fake or not) of the President (yours or not) and thought to myself what type of deranged individual would think something like that was funny particularly as he has an 11 year old child. I was very sad that we have come to a point in the world where anyone would think that was even remotely funny and I am appalled that this woman (I am ashamed that she is the same gender as I) would be given any air time whatsoever for any reason ever again, First Amendment nothwithstanding.
C'est bonne, Rocket .. Perfect.