It’s time the green message was aimed squarely at the heart

The green movement of today should take note; get the message to children by humanising animals as did Walt Disney. The Powerful Owl should not be a species endangered by the logging of old-growth forests, but a mother coming back with food for her children to find the home is no longer there. Let our children then share her anguish.

If we can humanise the owl, then can we humanise her forest?

There was a short poem quickly written in 1913. It was titled Trees. As a soldier in World War l, the author, Joyce Kilmer, was shot through the head by a sniper. That poem swept the English-speaking world. When the words were later set to music by Oscar Rasbach, the haunting song became as popular as the poem had been. Listen here.

Why was such an “amateurish” poem so popular? It must have been because it hit some spot in the common man which generated in him a spiritual experience. There is a deeper more thoughtful self in all of us. Cultural conditioning tends to bury that thoughtful self. The greenies need to seek out the spot Kilmer hit.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowering breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain
Who intimately lives with rain;
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.

Make a mental note of a job for tomorrow: I must hug a tree.