a former roomate’s father once asked me if i was worried about becoming too smart and therefore, miserable. it’s a slippery slope, really. as i was reading this, i saw a cat in the subway rocking a full camo outfit. it could’ve been his own, first issue, but probably-not. so i was thinking about the fibre memory and the bodies that might have been on that, the blood that may have splashed it, but why stop at soldier’s clothes? why not consider the entire vintage industry-where do the clothes come from? what about the fabrics and fibres and sweatshops and machinery and dyes? (sigh). then there’s muscle memory and the similarities between humans, animals, and plants. it takes a lot to fluster me, but the descriptions of plant sex actually made me blush-for reals.
“To their mutual surprise, the plant came to life, the pen recorder oscillating wildly on the chart. This led to speculation that talking of sex could stir up in the atmosphere some sort of sexual energy such as the ‘orgone’ discovered and described by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and that the ancient fertility rites in which humans had sexual intercourse in freshly seeded fields might indeed have stimulated plants to grow.” (29)
“The peanut butter which Carver went to such pains to produce is now mostly being made from rancid peanuts, says Nichols, since the food chemists have learned to clean it up, deodorize it and decolor it so that it can be sold to unsuspecting mothers. By one means or another and with hundreds of toxic additives to choose from, chemists can fix food that is very difficult for the citizen to tell that the food is going or has already gone bad.” (250)
“But there is still hope if we get back on track, says Nichols, if we begin to cleanse the poisons from every link of the food chain, so as to restore the country to proper nutrition and avoid the long decline that blighted North America and the Near East. To do so, and save the nation from metabolic disaster, says Nichols, we must change from an economy of exploitation to one of conservation. In the long run the country must give up chemical fertilizers and gradually revive the soil organically. Organic fertilizer, and at no greater cost. Deposits of raw rock phosphate and potash with marine trace minerals and other deposits are readily available.
A great advantage of organic rock fertilizers is that after a few years of application they are no longer needed. Whereas the chemical farmer is obliged to put on more and more fertilizer each year, the organic farmer can put on less and less. Eventually the organic farmer will make more money, as it will cost him less to operate.” (256)
and this brings us back to work-tomorrow.
moving me like the rat book, as parallel:
“Asked to sum up the importance of his research with plants, Vogel replied: ‘So much of the ills and suffering in life comes from our inability to release stresses and forces within us. When a person rejects us, we rebel inside and we /hold on to this rejection./ This builds a stress which, as Dr. Wilhelm Reich showed so long ago, becomes locked in as muscular tension, and if not unlocked, depletes the body’s energy field and alters its chemistry. My research with plants indicates one pathway to deliverance.’” (31-2)
“…L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, had noted that plants dislike certain types of artificial light, such as the cold light emitted by sodium street lamps, which can cause them to come out in a cold sweat clearly visible on their foliage.” (56-7)
“Because he took care of thousands of plants in the firm’s extensive greenhouses, Merta noticed that the effects of loneliness produced when a plant is taken away from hundreds of its friends often caused it such a shock that it would pine, even die; however when returned to the greenhouse, it immediately perked up and regained its normal green health.” (59)
“Though it had been thought that plants liked unlimited quantities of carbon dioxide, Bose found that too much of this gas could suffocate them, but that they could then be revived, just like animals, with oxygen. Like human beings, plants became intoxicated when given shots of whiskey or gin, swayed like any barroom drunkard, passed out, and eventually revived, with definite signs of a hangover.” (94)
“‘…A child should learn through a medium of pleasure, not of pain. Most of the things that are really useful in later life come to the children through play and through association with nature.’” (134)
“To experiment with exotic varieties of plants Ott built a small greenhouse, where he found that each variety of plant presented to him as many problems as would a different tribe to an anthropologist. Many of his charges seemed to act like tempermental prima donnas with deep psychological disturbances. As he consulted with university botanists and research scientists on the staffs of large companies, little by little the basic biological causes for his plants’ misbehavior became clear: they were extremely sensitive not only to light and temperature but to ultraviolet, TV and X-rays.” (189)
“Pfeiffer came to realize that it is only our human egotistical point of view that labels a weed a weed, and that if they were viewed as a functioning part of nature, weeds would have much to teach. Pfeiffer proved that a whole group of weeds, including sorrels, docks, and horsetails, are sure indicators that the soil is becoming too acidic. Dandelions, which lawn owners so feverishly dig up, actually heal the soil by transporting minerals, especially calcium, upward from deep layers, even from underneath hardpan. The dandelion is thus warning the lawn owner that something is wrong with the life of his soil.” (264)
Thank you for sharing your reviews, insights, and reflections. My passion for text and taking myself through literary sojourns has been reignited.