Look

One of the first words in my first primer was "look." It was an encouragement, it was an admonition, it was a challenge. "Look" created more questions than it answered.

Annie Dillard looked. She saw the surface and below the surface. She asked questions, and like any artist, she attemped to pose answers, sometimes using great artistic license. Did she tell the truth? Perhaps not always THE truth as someone else would see it, but she told A truth that made the point at which she was aiming. Much of the time, she encouraged her reader to "look." See what is beyond the obvious. Find your truth, even when it is not necessarily hers, or anyone else's. Look.

This morning as I was reading previous blog posts, my husband came up behind me while I was at the computer. The smell of tomato vine dripped from his fingers as he popped a freshly-picked cherry tomato in my mouth. As I bit into the tomato, its warm tart sweet juices flowing over my tongue, I was taken by the moment and vacated the reading for the tomato experience.

Reflecting, I thought of Doug Fine's organic tomatoes transported to the store from which he bought them. How much energy and of what kinds were needed to procure his tomatoes, and mine?

Fine also encourages his readers to "look" and see what they could do as individuals to be more effective in using energy. He leads by example, not always perfect, and he does point out his shortcomings. But, he leads and encourages.

Farewell, My Subaru was enchanting, and, yet, the spell is broken periodically and pointedly by information that caught me up short and often pointed to a better way of doing a thing by being less reliant on purchased energy.

One such example was Kevin, the mechanic in Albuquerque who transformed the Ford F-250 from a diesel guzzler to one that ran on biofuel. His reasoning was that it should be unthinkable to support the weapons that kill Americans by Americans' purchase of Middle Eastern oil. Kevin's appeal was not primarily to save the planet, but to save lives. He is doing something that can help save the planet in the process.

Look. See. Do.