Group Effort

Trees have alot to teach us. They are the essence of strength, patience, beauty, and perseverance.
I spent last weekend in the heart of the Mark Twain National Forest floating down the Gasconade River. As we floated down the river we saw some of the most impressive trees that I have ever seen. Some of these trees had huge trunks that over time had lost some of the soil around the roots causing the trees to lean out over the river. The process of the tree essentially falling down must take quite a bit of time because even though the trunk was leaning so far over the main branches above had changed their growth path and compensated for the leaning by counterbalancing the tree. The fact that the tree had the intuition to naturally balance itself in order to survive is impressive beyond words. It just proves to me that mother nature has a plan to help all living things. The repair takes time, but eventually all is well again. My heart sinks as I look at the mess in the Gulf, but I know that over time Mother Nature can repair herself. We can point fingers at BP, Transocean, and Halliburton all day long. But in the end, we have enabled those companies to become these monsters and in some way or another we are all responsible for the mess. I encourage anyone who reads this to reduce your consumption. Not recycle, not reuse, but reduce! Through reduction in consumerism we might be able to fix quite a few of our messes. Such as the big 'Stimilus Package' that was passed and the subsequent recession. The people were mad that our Government had given the banks all our tax dollars after they had so carelessly failed to manage themselves. But now, what are we doing? Just as before I see people financing Cars, TV's, Furniture, and getting Home Equity Loans. Thus doing exactly what got us in this mess to begin with! As my office mate says, Bob Newhart has the best advice "Just Stop It", let's just quit enabling the banks. We are in this mess together, the gulf, the recession, it's all related. I get frustrated with all the politics and finger pointing, we all did it! Let's own up to it and start the long repair process!!

Such a beautiful day today, I hope everyone can get out and enjoy some time outside!!