Cercospora

Not sure learning about Cercospora would happen, but it's captured my mind. Cercospora is the fungus that attacks leaves, a plant disease. 

Things that grow on leaves file here.

I’m seeing cottonwood tree seeds.

Eriophyes tiliae

Parasitic Gall wasp

Racoon

 

Supposedly Tokyo is battling a racoon problem. I remember them getting into our garbage when I lived with my parents. Some people call them trash pandas. 

In other news, Rhododendrons are seen as dangerous in England, they could help carry a disease.

Freezing

When you live in the city, you learn New Jersey and Long Island in small episodes. People from long Island know Hicks. My friend who works for Hicks reports last weekend was the beginning of the most busy season because it's the cut off line when you plant, because it's highly unlikely to freeze after that point. 

The freeze line captured my imagination, and it's mother's day that the line is drawn, a fascinating correlation. 

I try to meditate with my eyes closed, but I do open them. Watching the clouds cross the sky is part of the joy of meditating for me.

On a down note, I've seen 5 dead smooshed baby birds on the sidewalk, and my first thought is they were pushed out of the nest, but I don't think there was a nest above them. It's a mystery.

Rousseau

Mountain Landscape, by Soga Shōhaku, ca. 1761-1763

Japanese prints make man small and nature big.

Rousseau is at the heart of going back to nature phantasy, that the Concord Transcendentalists connect with. By postulating that society corrupts and doesn't corrupt, he rightly points out that owning land was the start of when nature is not allowed to be free.

I was trying to explain to my daughter how the Portuguese could exploit Japan's isolation in the TV show Shogun(2024), there was a time when information didn't flow as freely as it does now. It begins to flow more freely with writing, then radio, then TV, then cable, then internet.

Rosseau wasn't so hostile to civilization, he says the opposite, forgets his repudiation like all good dialectic thinkers. Civilization is amazing too, helpful, supportive.

I feel a kind of tug by Dionysian ecstasy, and civilization. Yesterday in Madison Wisconsin, they arrested 80 revelers at the Mifflin Street Party (source). You are allowed to be wild and dress up for sporting events, Mardi Gras, Halloween to get candy. Religions want to harness this energy, if they're smart. Milarepa thought he got enlightened after a beer, after sitting in meditation year after year so that there were calluses on his butt. He wrote poetry and sang his songs. 

There's also unrealistic nostalgia in harkening back to an ideal time that never really existed. Going back to nature might not be what you really think it is. Our internal input is the most important thing we have, that is who we are. Some people think it's listening to God even. Uncovering our Buddha-nature. 

Small not on style, I'm no sure whether it's Buddha Nature, buddha nature, Buddha nature or Buddha-nature. Wikipedia has the last. 

Back to Rousseau. I found it shocking that he gave up all 5 of (probably) his children with Theresa to orphanages. Going back to nature was just a simplified version of callousness to him, and honestly I lost all respect for him.

I wonder how he could write Emile, about education, if couldn't be bothered to raise his children. Then I realized it was about how he would have liked to have been educated. An extension of his theories.

When I was younger, I thought the ideas were pretty important, but I think what you do speaks the loudest and crimes against humanity are always an empathy gap. That is the biggest problem and the most unnatural thing. 

Still, I like this idea (Strathern 2002, p.56): He specifically states that "in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, nor be poor enough to be forced to sell himself." The state should "allow neither rich men nor beggars."

Mr. Five Willows (Wuliu), Tao Yuanming 

Cunningham

 

Lilac

Eastern Redbud

Hilltop

 European Crab Apple Tree

Grape Hyacinth

Rhododendrons 

Tulip

Tulips

Dead nettles

Siberian Buglos

Tulips

Bugle

Wild Cabbage

Phlox

Lake meditation

 

Lake meditation today.

I was reading today that these yellow flowers Buttercups are invasive and take over so other flowers can't bloom (source).

I like "almost died in wilderness" stories. Here's one in the New York Times.

4/19/24. Yesterday I thought about walking down to the lake and I thought about how muddy it was, the car noise of the two highways bracketing it (Van Wyck and the Grand Central Parkway), the tire in the water (you can see in the top photo), and all the garbage people leave behind. Sometimes urban greenspaces aren't kept up well and they can be unappealing. I've been tempted to take a garbage bag and do some cleaning when I go. 

The fisherman takes garbage out, which I really appreciate.

I'm also noticing how dirty NYC is, so maybe it's my issue of the moment. 34 years living here, I sometimes am not bothered by it. I look at the clouds in the sky or see the beauty. Sometimes I get negative and see the garbage. Another layer of trying not to be negative.