I thought I’d celebrate my return to No Unsacred Place by musing upon the question of “why nature religion anyway?” I will say first that I don’t consider humanity and all our works to be essentially separate from nature; quite the opposite. I do think we ignore the non-human world at our peril and to our impoverishment. It’s a kind of narcissism to attend only to the doings of our own species, fascinating as they are. Looking outside of ourselves... Read more
I went to see General Orders No. 9 at the Georgia State University campus theater. It is not a film for the impatient. It has no plot; what narrative there is meanders and recurses. The narrator doesn’t explain anything so much as pose more questions. “Documentary” is as good a label as any, and the film includes fascinating footage of old maps of Georgia. The title is a reference to the last orders given by General Robert E. Lee to... Read more
My father grew up on a farm, in a place and time when people didn’t go to the store for things they could produce themselves. He planted a big garden every year, out of which we canned and preserved enough to keep us in tomatoes, green beans and corn through the winter. He planted our three acres or so of property from one end to the other with fruit trees, grape and scuppernong arbors, blueberry bushes, and even a fig... Read more
Well, the quail she’s a pretty bird, she sings a sweet tongue, ‘neath the roots of tall timbers she nests with her young… –“Black Waters” by Jean Ritchie I live out in the country, on a dirt road. Though I’m used to the relatively common urban wildlife of Athens and Atlanta…including hawks, coyotes, and a blue heron I saw once during the Piedmont Arts Festival, which I mistook for art until it moved…rural southeast Georgia is something else again.... Read more
Birdsong is a nearly universal symbol for springtime, joy and love. But the earliest sign of change from the damp gray chill of winter in my home state…coinciding with Imbolc in south Georgia and in full throat everywhere by Ostara…is the piping call of spring peepers. I have childhood memories of opening my window in early spring so I could hear them as I fell asleep, calling out for love down along Peavine Creek. The beautiful, warm, and humid Southeast... Read more
Originally posted in Pantheon Generally it helps to understand where someone is coming from. At this point in time I am coming to you live from the southern node of the axis of woo that runs south along US 441 from Asheville, NC…that is to say, Athens, GA. We have a university here with which I am associated in various ways, and other peculiar customs, including a Tree That Owns Itself in defiance of human-centric notions of property. Patton Oswalt... Read more
A Word to the Witch
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