19 April 2008 Talkeetna Goldsworthy

We walked through the woods on a hard firm crust in Talkeetna this weekend. I spotted this natural bit of art on Saturday morning; it looked like something Andrew Goldsworthy would have done if he had the chance to venture into the boreal forest in winter. This small spruce has long ago died and been buried in snow year after year until it's in a permanent arched shape. My luck was to walk by just as the morning sun was at the right angle to form a circle of the tree and its shadow.

My biking friends might see a misshapen bike wheel with spokes. Soon after snapping this photograph I headed to the Upper Susitna Earth Day event to set up a booth for The Nature Conservancy. From some of the presentations, exhibits, and conversations at Earth Day, I might say this was the circle of life -- death and rebirth in a new form (through light) all in one.

I just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. If we all read it, we'd revolutionize the food industry in this country because 1) we'd be sickened by how unnaturally our food is produced through mass production and 2) we'd want to put our planet back in balance. To me, the most fascinating section of the book is about a farm in Virgina where livestock and pasture feed each other and produce delicious foods that feed people. No waste leaves the farm because nothing is waste -- cow dung provides grubs for chickens, which fertilize the grass as they feed from the dung, and then the lush grass later feeds the cows again. The farmer moves the livestock in a circular dance from pasture to pasture and eventually to someone's table in the form of egg, broiler, or steak. Light grows grass, the main crop, and creates life anew.

Hmm, when I took this picture, I wasn't thinking about food production, just how nature forms art. But circles can be powerful symbols. And on a spring day in Alaska, the mind can easily be turned to thinking about how to make this Paradise last forever.