Attributing Snow

Our lovely snow is melting in the sun today, following a trajectory of loss that began yesterday. On a collegial list serve, we are discussing how to deal with sloppy attribution in the media: it is difficult to be clear and direct about dynamics and not digress into personalities.

This is the paradox of connection. Expecting or asking for attribution, response, empathy are all desires that reflect our need to be part of a whole and include others in that whole. But to ask or point out an error is hard to do with getting defensive, someone else angry. This is as true about the dynamics of global warming as it is about personal relationships. And so we drive ourselves, eachother away from connection.

Dave Pollard's blog, How to Save the World <http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/> writes of loneliness on Valentine's Day. My Scottish friend asks me why I don't just stand at an easel and paint my beautiful view. After all, isn't that what artists do? Why am I troubled by all these political farces and tragedies?

Why can't I just stick my head in the sand? Well, perhaps that's one reason I am an ecological artist and what defines an ecological artist. My lovely view and the melting snow are small pieces of a larger whole. I am interested in the whole landscape. Just as attributions, copyrights, appreciations allow us to see the whole rich landscape of an idea, a feeling, a situation; they also protect us from the distortions that arise from significant omissions.

So what is the connection between melting snow, Cheney's secretiveness over shooting someone, professional attributions and global warming? They are all questions of transparency, trust and generosity.

What is the connection to ecological art, dying seals and melting snow? Whatever happens to the least of us happens to us all (who said that?). I think looking at these dynamics is no different than analyzing the composition of a view before I put it down on canvas on my easel.

Warm temperatures are predicted and rain. More snow will melt here this weekend. My tulips may try again even tho they aren't scheduled till late May. I can't help them. I hear it is snowing in Israel. In Idaho there is not enuf snow cover to protect over-wintering crops. The polar bears are still starving. My elderly dying dog is still dying but has rallied and wags her tail often.

She is lying in the sun on my globallyw armed porch. With a change in diet her coat is glossier. Witha change in routine she seems more alert. She is resting now from playing ball a bit.

We all do the best we can. I am connecting some dots to make a picture here. The view I see is of change and alarm and the hope of life that persists despite loss.