(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Impermanence [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-10 Impermanence is a major principle in Buddhism (See: en.wikipedia.org/…, artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/...), but it is also a realistic view of the world and as such needs to be understood for a complete life. Everything decays, changes, or (according to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) goes to entropy (See: chem.libretexts.org/...). However, a lot of people seem to believe just the opposite, that things stay the same, or at least should do so (See: www.psychologytoday.com/…,). One the the worst illusions in this regard is the belief that one can halt death by not thinking about it, or protecting yourself from it. My mother was a case in point in that she wanted everything that could be done to be done to stop her death. I had to overrule her request as her POA because I knew that certain things done to prolong her life would only make her suffer more. Thankfully we never had to test this because she died from a blood clot in the brain and was not revivable. My wife and I signed DNR orders years ago, because we have no desire to prolong the inevitable unless there was a realistic possibility that we could survive without radical intervention. My younger daughter is putting out a series of podcasts on the subject of death, inspired by her mother’s condition (See: lifeisfortheliving.buzzsprout.com). By same token, nothing in the natural world stays the same. It is truly said that one cannot step into the same stream twice (See: theinvisiblementor.com/...). This becomes obvious when one returns to old haunts after years of absence. Only rarely has there been no obvious change, but even then some change has occurred if one is observant. Years ago (2001), on a field trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the driver took us back to Keene via Vermont, stopping to see The Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation that resembled a man’s face in profile. A few years later (2003) the formation collapsed (See: en.wikipedia.org/...). I have only the memory of the granite profile in the rain. One example with which I was involved is the Range Caterpillar, Hemileuca oliviae, which is one of the few giant silkworm moths (family Saturniidae) that feeds on grass. Ranchers despise this native moth because its caterpillars destroy Blue Grama Grass, a major forage plant for cattle, during periodic out breaks. My department head discovered live examples in Chihuahua, Mexico, as well as specimens of adults from the Davis Mountains of Texas in the British Museum of Natural History in London. We easily collected specimens in Chihuahua, but could not find them in the Davis Mountains, leading us to believe that it had become extinct there. DNA analysis and morphometrics led us to believe that the population in Mexico was the likely founding population of the species, and that it had spread with the grasslands as far north as Colorado several thousand years ago, the populations becoming isolated in central and northern New Mexico and Chihuahua as brush species like Mesquite invaded. Mesquite may have evolved in South America and somehow moved north (that is still uncertain), but the flora seems to have altered somewhere about 10,000 years ago, with Creosote moving north from South America and Snakeweed moving south. Thus the Southwestern grassland had changed drastically over that time period. In a much shorter time frame, forest fires and floods made South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon almost unrecognizable to me when I returned in 2015 to help teach a field course for the American Museum of Natural History. Water had moved boulders and smashed picnic tables. Indeed, the creek was still roaring with runoff. South Fork of Cave Creek, Chiricahua Mountains, after the flood, but still a torrent. One of my favorite hiking areas (when I could actually hike), the 4.5 mile Pine Tree loop trail in the Organ Mountains, suffered a serious forest fire caused by a Abrams Tank (See: www.krwg.org/...). On one of my last hikes along the trail I found that the Ponderosa Pine tree that marked the start of the small forest had burned. Result of Abrams Fire on first Ponderosa Pine tree along Pine Tree loop trail, Organ Mountains.This tree was our marker for the beginning of the small pine forest along the trail. Eons of change have altered the earth over time so much so that although the niches in ecosystems often remain similar, the creatures that fill them can be quite different. In Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds, Thomas Halliday gives the reader a tour some of the ecosystems of the past, and in the process demonstrates the changes that have occured. I doubt that anybody could deny the impermanence of seemingly stable environments, for all are subject to Black Swan events, like earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and climate change. Even various countries and governmental systems like the United States are likely limited by time. It has been a grand experiment, despite its many flaws (slavery being a major one), but it will probably eventually fail, as all experiments in governance seem to do, with a few exceptions perhaps. I am not arguing that such fails should not be resisted because giving in to such will only add to the misery, and there is no absolute law that makes any stumble lead to a certain collapse. We should, however, be aware of ultimate impermanence. This too shall pass is not just a trite saying, but almost a certainty. How soon that will happen is unpredictable, but pass it will. In my personal life things have and will continue to change. Like any change, there are regrets, but everything must come to an end. I am now in my eighties, with bad knees and problems with my right shoulder, and am obviously much closer to the grave than to my birth. My wife, who graduated from Hospice, is stable, but I cannot have a conversation with her anymore. She recognizes me and our daughters, but that’s about it. I feel like I have been in mourning for three years. I miss her so much and nothing can help beyond being a bandaid on a fatal wound. Also, the recent election has made me think that I really have nothing further to say that I have not already said. I mourn that I once lived in a flawed, but at least sane, society and soon we will all live in a self-centered, grifting and caprice driven society, thanks to ill-informed and/or spiteful voters. My father, who was a classical narcissist, occasionally would get in a good mood and suddenly become very generous, as does our current president-elect (gag!). It didn’t change the fact that such moods were rare and didn’t undo the damage already done by his earlier tirades. The people who voted for this abomination should think of this. They will be discarded as soon as he sees no use for them in his plans. My wife is in a home facility now and that may be threatened. This is one of many destructive things T***p can do. In fact, I’m getting tired of seeing T***P’s ugly face everywhere, even on the KOS. I am not so depressed about the election that I would ever consider ending it all. My parents used that threat against me and I could not do such a selfish act to my daughters in any case, but I do have little time left no matter what I do. I don’t preclude ever writing future diaries (as I tried to do over 100 diaries ago), but at best they likely will be rare. I’ll try to find my solace in the natural world and art until the end, and if I write, it will probably be on these subjects. I, of course, will resist T***pism to the best of my abilities. There is, unfortunately, little or nothing I can do to change the reality that the next four years, at best, will finish off any chances we had to mitigate Global Warming, at least by government action. Thus, I bid you all Adiós y buenas suerte! You’ll need it! We all will! 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