people talk about the difference between "arguing angry" and "arguing flirty" for Cardassians and you know what. I think it'd be really funny if that had a lot of regional variation

[ hc ] loufte

region of ahfey 

related muses: fenrir, sköll, alleluia

History & Lifestyle

Loufte, formerly known as Scyllus, was an archipelago lifted into the air by the storm god as a haven for the Immortals who were being cut down by Yail and (accidentally) Raeil, Khaeil. Where it used to sit lies in a bermuda triangle-esque area surrounded by cyclones. As such, the locals of Loufte have no safe way of touching on land and instead embrace the fact that they live in the sky now. The people of Loufte are far more technologically advanced than the land down below and they aren’t afraid to show it with their airships and various other technologies that can be seen from below.

The people of Loufte are naturally Nomadic, but their home has a tendency to move with them.

There are, however, giant hub cities that people have settled into like Flux, or the incredibly ancient denizens of C’madiso, who have been creatures of the sky long before Loufte was raised. C’madiso is now considered a part of Loufte, despite the locals not wishing for that to be the case.

The main protein of Loufte is skyfood (which are cloud-borne fish). Seafood is very hard to import, thus making it incredibly expensive. A lot of the food is home-grown in the lower islands of Troponesia, where rain definitely falls.

Sky pirates are also a thing. Just putting it out there. A lot of their captains have wings.

The currency here (and by here: Flux and C’madiso and several airships) is known as the Drachma. Everywhere else is on the barter system.

Notable Skymarks

Home of the Ancients

The Home of the Ancients is the ‘final resting place’ of the last remaining True Immortals. The ones who were not gods, but simply could not die. They hold a lot of Ahfey’s history and were there since the beginning, old, and wise. They are taken care of by Khaeil’s ‘angels,’ who are winged people handpicked by the storm god specifically for this task.

The island is beautiful, pale white. Marble architecture with a plethora of trees growing. It should be noted, that it is nearly impossible to reach the Home of the Ancients if you are not one of Khaeil’s angels. It is in the eye of a large, perpetual hurricane called The Eagle’s Eye, and on top of that, exists as the second highest island. Even a lot of those blessed by the wind god often do not make the journey, if coming from the outside.

It is rumored that denizens of C’madiso can actually visit the Home of the Ancients, but none have shared their story, if they have.

Flux

Flux is the most advanced city on the largest island of the archipelago. It is said that Flux is actually the focal point of most of the islands in Loufte, and the other ones simply revolve around it. Whether that is true is up for debate, but (with the exception of C’madiso) Flux is the only consistent city with actual coordinates that can be pinned down in the archipelago, meaning there might be a gravitational force at play there.

Flux is extremely culturally diverse, being a trade town as well as the only place accessible in the sky. It is not the lowest floating city by any means, but its consistent position helps with immigration as well as trade.

Technology is at its finest here in Flux and it has a massive airship dock, as well as transporters. Malls, theater, concerts. Culture is an incredible focus as well as its incredibly different districts each with their own fashion and culture.

It is said Flux is ran by one mysterious entity known as The Conductor. All the electricity in Flux is generated by machinations that run underneath the city. The sewer system is a mysterious Labyrinth that not many have returned from. It is said The Conductor lives there.

C’madiso (Paradiso / Starhaven)

C’madiso, known by Fluxopolitans as ‘Starhaven’ is the oldest island in the Loufte Archipelago, and was annexed into Loufte by geographers, to the disdain of the locals. A lot of the world’s drama began in C’madiso, as it is the kingdom founded by the original Sun and Moon, El Sol and La Lune. The architecture is very flowy and covered in gold, that is said to transition in color depending on the seasons. The spiral is a very popuar shape and is used in most architecture. A lot of the buildings are old, but not weathered, as C’madiso is one of the few islands to exist above the clouds (along with The Home of the Ancients).

C’madiso is the closest to the cosmos as any land can get in Ahfey, existing on the same layer of its atmosphere as the aurora borealis do in Glaskhei and Ikenglas.

The locals of C’madiso worship their current king, Fenrir voh Lune, king of the moon, son of La Lune and El Sol. The denizens sport multicolored hair and are heavily aligned with the moon. Those sporting flamboyant warm-colored hair are often ostracized and seen as Other, seeing as the current sun, Sköll voh Lune is heavily ostracized, himself.

All of the denizens of C’madiso can speak common, but prefer not to. Their language is referred to as Celestial, which sounds like twinkling chimes and little songs for each sentence.  The language will be talked further upon in another document.

Another cultural aspect is that of surnames: Surnames. Celestials’ surnames are often the first name of the parent who dies last, for example: La Lune was Fenrir and Sköll’s surviving parent, therefore, their full names would be ‘Fenrir voh Lune’ and ‘Sköll voh Lune.’

-> voh = “son of”

-> vah = “daughter of”

-> veh = “child of”

The people of C’madiso also all have silver blood, sporting proof as being directly created by divine entities, while the royal family is meant to have golden ichor.

The city itself’s decor is said to be split down the middle, sun decals on one side of it, moon decals on the other, but a lot of the sun paraphernalia has been defaced, broken, or even painted over, or removed entirely.

The fate of C’madiso is said to foretell the fate of the rest of the world.

Aiari (The Airship Council’s Meetingplace)

Aiari is a quickly moving island hidden between the clouds. At least that is what is said. Actually, Aiari is masses of broken up rock, almost like a sandbar in the Sea of Clouds. It is barely qualified as an island because it is so small and fragmented. It’s only considered an island in the winter, when ice frosts over the surface of the broken up rocks to make one solid structure.

Airship captains tend to meet here to hold important meetings, or settle scores. Deals and Parley occur aplenty here. Murder also occurs aplenty.

The Troponesia

The agricultural source of Loufte. The Troponesia are several tiny, low-hanging islands that are exclusively for farmland, as they are fully below the clouds and rain can fall on them. A lot of the locals aren’t as elitist about the sky, but are mostly just human. Currency is not really a thing for them, either, as they prefer the barter system, trading their food for technology from Flux.

Some of the Troponesian islands have actually managed to create gliding technology that allowed them to fish from the sea itself, and then return, but this is a very difficult and dangerous process. Fish from Troponesia is extremely expensive as a result, and is generally only caught around festival times.

The Sea of Clouds

The main source of protein for Loufte, it is the big hang of clouds covering Sanguisos. Many species of celestial fish have made their home. There are a lot of airships that go fishing here, and there is a huge variety of fish with a wide variety of flavor. It’s incredibly plentiful, and all small or infant fish are supposed to be released back into the Sea for repopulation.

Geography & Climate

Loufte varies in climate solely based on its position. It is spread all the way over the atmosphere. Its epicenter, Flux, is quite warm as it is in the tropics, but the Troponesia can be very cold depending on their position. Usually it is quite warm and tropical, since they receive direct sunlight.

The Troponesia are the only areas that actually receive rain in Loufte, the rest live around within the clouds, or above them, so it can be somewhat humid. The only exception to this is C’madiso, whose air is warm, yet crisp. Like a spring breeze, at all times.

Top 10 Ancient Cases Of Rare And Bizarre Skeletons

“Six feet under” is sometimes the best place for an archaeologist. However, combing through the right ancient grave dredges up more than just somebody’s remains. It often sheds light on our ancestors and their way of life. Unusual burials and those abandoned where they died also bring historic questions to the living—sometimes mysterious, often heartbreaking. Then there are the bizarre things people did with the dead as well as amazing glimpses into lost lives.

10 A Medieval Female Criminal

Photo credit: archaeologyinbulgaria.com In 2016, Bulgarian archaeologists discovered a necropolis in the city of Plovdiv. A year later, investigations progressed to a late medieval grave and the contents were unusual. The person inside had been placed facedown. Reports speculated that the remains most likely belonged to a bandit, especially since the skeleton’s wrists were tied behind his back. A better look at the skeleton has since proven that it was female. Though her history is lost, the strange position was almost certainly punishment for a transgression in life and not to prevent her from turning into a vampire. In the past, a spate of strange and gruesomely treated graves betrayed the ancient Bulgarians’ fear of the undead. Some were staked; others were thoroughly nailed down. But the woman, one of eight medieval graves found in the Nebet Tepe Fortress, had no such mutilations. The rare burial was not the only noteworthy find. The same excavation also found evidence that human occupation at Plovdiv started as early as the fifth millennium BC. Read More : 10 Legendary Tales About Mythical Creatures

9 Strange Status Symbols

Photo credit: sciencenordic.com Iron Age Scandinavians considered the goose the ultimate status symbol. Researchers reached this conclusion after peeking into several Nordic graves. If you lacked the rare bird (as geese were in Scandinavia at the time), a chicken in the tomb was an acceptable switch.Tesla Hits Solar Roof Customers With Massive Price Hikes The 2018 study cataloged content inside 100 graves from AD 1–375. This was a critical time when Nordic countries saw many cultural changes because of Roman influences. Scandinavia took to the Roman trend of burying animals with their dead. Women were typically buried with sheep, and one infant was interred with a decapitated piglet. Geese were sacred to the Romans. Thus, only the most privileged Danes took one along into the afterlife. One man’s tomb was royal, filled with a menagerie that included a goose, cattle, sheep, a pig, and a dog. The latter proved that not all the animals were food for the dead. Cut marks on some species did suggest that Nordics adopted another funerary tradition from the Romans—to feast on the meat first. The dog had no cuts and probably symbolized friendship with a warrior master. Read More : Top 10 Bizarre New Finds About Black Holes

8 Turkish Mass Grave

Photo credit: newsweek.com The 3,000-year-old city of Parion started out as a Greek settlement and fell under Roman rule in 133 BC. Today, the ruins of this major harbor stand in Turkey. In 2011, archaeologists puttered about the site during an unofficial dig. It soon turned very official when a mass grave was unearthed. One child and 23 adults turned up. Unlike most mass graves, their burial was not the result of violence. On the contrary, the multi-tombed structure was lined with grave goods. In addition, the careful arrangement of the bodies suggested high status. The dead were not interred all at once but over a long time, from the first to the third centuries AD. However, a grisly find appeared odd among all the signs of respectful funerals. The occupants of the tomb were decapitated. At one end of the mass grave, 15 skulls were recovered. The rest were eventually located in a northeast corner, together with the child. Read More : Top 10 Bizarre Belief Systems

7 Knives Made From Humans

Photo credit: Live Science During the 1800s and 1900s, missionaries reported a gruesome practice: The warriors of New Guinea used bone daggers sourced from humans. The weapons were used in close combat, reportedly to disable prisoners who were later served up as dinner. In 2018, researchers wanted to know why such a gory relic was a prized possession. As it turned out, human knives were practical and bestowed powerful rights upon the owner. Measuring up to 30 centimeters (12 in) long, these thighbones were not plucked from the leg of just any random person. They came from one’s father or an influential individual. The dagger continued to hold the status and rights of the deceased, so the living person who possessed it could claim those privileges. It also turned out to be more resilient than another New Guinea knife crafted from the cassowary. The cassowary is large and flightless but remains one of the most lethal birds on Earth. Their thighbones made decent daggers. Unfortunately, they turned out flatter and lacked the fortifying curvature of human thighbones, making cassowary knives only half as strong. Additionally, bird bones were easier to find, which made human daggers more valued for their rarity. Read More : Top 10 Costliest Coffees in the World : Most Expensive Coffee

6 A New Pompeii Child

Photo credit: The Telegraph Alone and scared, a Roman child fled from hot volcanic ash and debris in AD 79. The youngster decided to take shelter in the public baths building. But as Vesuvius erupted, its superheated pyroclastic cloud killed everyone who stayed behind in Pompeii—including the child. Citizens received a fair warning when the volcano smoked and rumbled for days. Even so, about 2,000 people chose to remain in the city. In 2018, sophisticated scans swept the bath complex. When the discovery inevitably happened, it was unexpected because the area had been considered fully explored since the 19th century. He or she was around 7–8 years old and became the first child to be recovered from the ruins in half a century. To determine the youngster’s gender and health, archaeologists removed the skeleton for future testing. As to how exactly the child perished, he or she likely died of suffocation when the pyroclastic cloud sealed off the building. Located some distance away from Naples, Mount Vesuvius remains a danger today and had a major eruption as recently as 1944. Read More : Top 10 Most Expensive Cars in the world

5 People With Extra Limbs

Photo credit: National Geographic In 2018, archaeologists did a double take when they opened dozens of graves in Peru. Discovered in the town of Huanchaco, some skeletons had extra limbs. The 1,900-year-old individuals belonged to the enigmatic Viru people (AD 100–750). Why almost 30 of 54 burials included additional parts, especially one skeleton with two extra left legs, stumped the archaeologists. However, there was one disturbing clue—most were adults with traumatic injuries. These included blunt force trauma and slice marks. One theory suggests that the limbs were funerary sacrifices. However, for the moment, that idea is shelved with other unknown facts, such as the age and gender of the multi-limbed people and whether there existed any link between the deceased and donors. Interestingly, the culture that followed the Viru, the Moche people, did the exact opposite. They often packed their dead away with missing limbs. When they did decide to include something extra, they added more than a single arm or leg. Usually, it was an entire sacrificial victim. Read More : Top 10 Most Expensive Cars in the world

4 A Horse Surrounded By People

Photo credit: Live Science In 2011, a pyramid was found in Sudan. Nestled inside the ancient Nubian city of Tombos, the elite structure suggested that a very important person was buried inside. The complex had a chapel, and a shaft led to underground rooms. This architecture was known to be reserved for high-ranking humans. In fact, the remains of over 200 individuals lined the four chambers. However, in a surprise twist on most ancient burials, scientists realized that the tomb was meant for a horse and the people were secondary occupants. The 3,000-year-old mare was found 1.6 meters (5 ft) down the shaft, surrounded by artifacts of status. Wrapped in a shroud, her color was still obvious. The chestnut horse died at age 12–15. The advanced age and elaborate grave indicated that the mare was important to her owner. She’s valuable for modern reasons as well. The animal is among the most intact horse skeletons from this period, and an iron piece, likely bridle-related, is the oldest iron in Africa. The monument also suggested that Nubian horses were more revered than history gave them credit for. Read More : 10 Eerie Early Images Of Gods

3 A Dangerous Amputee

Photo credit: sciencealert.com From medieval Italy comes a really weird graveyard. Among the eternal human residents are greyhounds and even a headless horse. The showstopper was a man found in 2018. In life, the middle-aged guy had been an amputee. For reasons unknown, his right arm was severed at mid-forearm. Instead of causing vulnerability, one grave item suggested that he actually became more dangerous. He belonged to the warrior Longobard culture and, like most males in the cemetery, was buried with a knife. While the rest had their blades next to them, this man’s arm and knife was found on his chest. Their positions suggested that the weapon was a deadly prosthesis. His body showed the wear and tear from regularly tying something down. The arm bones were deformed by pressure, dental damage was consistent with using the teeth to fasten straps, and his shoulder developed a ridge from keeping the arm in such a way that he could use his mouth. That the man survived the amputation in an era without antibiotics is remarkable. He lived for years afterward, a hat tip to one individual’s spunk and community compassion. Read More : 10 Graveyards Supposedly Haunted By Vampires

2 Sandby Borg Slaughter

During the fifth century, Sandby Borg prospered on the coast of Oland island near Sweden. When archaeologists finished a three-year dig in 2018, they left with a few horrors. The villagers had suffered a brutal end. Around 1,500 years ago, an enemy attacked and massacred people in their homes with shocking efficiency. The violence was exceptional. Nine bodies were found in one house. In another, an elderly man had been left to burn in a hearth. People were struck down in the streets. Read the full article

A PRAYER FOR MOTHER EARTH

MARCH 28, 2017

I originally penned these words as the Afterword for A MILLION FRAGILE BONES. Ultimately, my publisher Joan Leggitt and I took it out of the book because we didn't feel it was the right fit. However, in light of the Trump Administration's decision to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing climate change regulations, I feel strongly it is time to publish the piece.

Here it is in its entirety.

This abiding truth is as simple as it is profound: All living creatures are threads in a single tapestry of life. The loss of one species, the anguished deaths of 1,000 dolphins, the slow-oil-agony demise of 800,000 birds affects the entire planet, perhaps even the cosmos. As John Muir said, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” We are enlarged, made better, by a healthy and vibrant Earth. We are not detached beings, divorced from our planet, only operating on the surface as if we’re bullet trains impelled by magnetic force, hovering above but never touching the tracks. We are of the Earth and of the sky. On this, our only home, we share DNA with every living organism. The worm and the butterfly. The gnat and the loon. The wolf and the crab. The whale and the ant. We are, individually and collectively, part of every molecule in our universe for every living creature is, at its essential self, stardust. One glance at the Periodic Table of Elements is a view into the building blocks that sustain and drive the complex lives of stars and every life form on our planet, including humans. Nitrogen or calcium, iron or carbon, chromium or nickel: these elements and more are created at the end of a star’s life when the energy producing nuclear reactions in the star’s heart cease, resulting in gravitational collapse. Perhaps this is the source of our origin story, the leitmotif of sacrifice: We are all sparkling moments of rebirth. But we are also astonishingly effective purveyors of death. We destroy a species, an ecosystem, a pod of dolphins caring for its young, a turtle completing her journey, a rare and mighty collective of whales that have a song like no one else in its genus, and we have effectively driven arrows into the very essence of our humanity. We have diminished our home, the thing that gives us joy, sustenance, life, an inkling of the holy. I have a friend whose hobby is deep-sea diving. She told me she stopped eating fish after she had several dynamic encounters with grouper. She claimed they are very curious, intelligent fish that often swim right up to her and seem to study her. She began making faces at them and the fish made faces back. She said she could no longer eat them because they are sentient beings, animals of intelligence with a range of emotions. Hers is not an act of anthropomorphism but of acute observation and interaction with her known world. If she’d never had those encounters, if she’d never paused long enough to notice what the fish were doing and to risk an interaction, she would have never been moved, changed. She would have continued to exist in an echo chamber of limited experiences. I have no idea how people harm animals, or clear-cut forests, or shear off mountaintops, or through greed-fueled negligence destroy rivers and oceans. In order for humans to slaughter sharks for shark fin soup (they cut off the shark’s dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins, leaving the shark unable to swim, sentencing the animal to a prolonged, horrendous death), I believe they must enter a mindset similar to that of combatants: dehumanize your opponent. But in this case, since the opponent is a non-human animal, I suppose the process would more accurately be labeled de-recognizing. By de-recognizing another living being’s value, it’s easier to kill it. How else could one inflict such cruelty? And what madness causes men to think rhino tusk powder will make them more virile? Perhaps it is the same madness that prompts wealthy American men to travel to Africa and “trophy hunt” (a de-recognizing phrase—the animal is reduced to the status of object—for a killing ritual in which all the cards are stacked in favor of the man with the bait and gun). Somehow, cruelty inspires in these wealthy hunters, some of whom shoot the animals from the sniper-esque advantage of helicopters—a fetish-centered belief in the glory of their phalluses. They de-recognize the world in order to kill it, and for them killing translates into power, control, sex. I am no longer naïve. I understand death is integral, even necessary, to life . . . sparkling moments of rebirth. And that people create religions. And that people fear death. You must sacrifice that goat, that child, that man, that woman in order to appease the gods. Believe this man is the Son of God and you will never truly die. If you live by the Prophet’s rules, you will be given a harem of virgins in heaven (what, I wonder, do the women get?). These are all stories humankind has created in order to make peace with the inevitable black door of death. But they also prevent us from rationally dealing with the science of nature. Life begets death, death begets life. But nature offers balance in the life-death tango. A cyclone spawns off the coast of Africa and eventually makes its way to the American plains where it drops enough water to relieve drought and water crops. When humankind decides to play god, chaos ensues: global climate change, rising sea levels, acid rain, extinct species, cancer epidemics, marginalized nutritional values in our food, and an entire ocean and its inhabitants poisoned. We are living in a time where there is increasing awareness that natural disasters are also social disasters. In an essay titled, “There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster,” anthropologist and geographer Neil Smith writes in reference to Hurricane Katrina, “In every phase and aspect of a disaster–causes, vulnerability, preparedness, results and response, and reconstruction–the contours of disaster and the difference between who lives and who dies is to a greater or lesser extent a social calculus.” The same holds true for manmade disasters. The Gulf ecosystem and the people who depend on its health and abundance for their well-being were already stressed due to a panoply of human factors, the most pressing of which were agricultural pollutants, the megalopolis called Atlanta and their mushrooming drinking water supply needs, and the fact that everything runs downstream. As an Alligator Point neighbor once said to me, “Every time someone flushes a toilet in Atlanta, the Gulf dies a little.” Fertilizers and pesticides have affected the Gulf basin since their introduction post World War II. Indeed, one of the enduring legacies of a war that was technologically advanced for its era is the develop[L1]  and reliance on chemicals which, while killing pests, also destroy waterways and human health. In order to meet its ever-growing need for fresh drinking water, Atlanta relentlessly draws down the Flint, Chattahoochee, and Apalachicola watershed. This system, when working properly (read: not manipulated by humankind), creates the salinity balance necessary for thriving oyster beds. The proper flow of freshwater provides nutrients to the oysters without which they succumb to illness and predation. But Atlanta, because of its increasing population, has been manipulating the flow for years. As a result, when natural or manmade disasters hit the Gulf region, the oyster beds have an increasingly more difficult time bouncing back. This was the situation when the BP oil spill occurred. The oyster fields were already embattled. So, too, were the people who have for generations made their living off harvesting oysters. This is how a manmade disaster becomes a social disaster: Take away someone’s ability to make a living, especially when the livelihood is intractably tied to a cultural way of life, and everything falls apart—the individual and the community. During the hundreds of hours spent researching material for this book, I discovered a secret. It’s a secret that is beginning to slowly emerge from the shadows in large part because of the Internet. Now what was once a nearly impossible task becomes a matter of keystrokes. I have at my disposal studies, plans, reports, maps, and diagrams detailing vast fields of disposed weaponry piled in watery trash heaps in the Gulf of Mexico. After World War II, without making any ado about it, the military began using the Gulf as a garbage dump for all manner of ordnance. A 2015 article published by Texas A & M University asserts, “The ordinance includes land mines, ocean mines, torpedoes, aerial bombs and several types of chemical weapons . . . . The chemical weapons may have leaked over the decades and could pose a significant environmental problem. The military began dumping the unexploded bombs from 1946 to 1970, when the practice was banned.” And the U.S. Army sent three soldiers to my shack who were charged with digging up non-existent ordnance in my yard and all the while chemical weapons were and are, in all probability, leaking into the Gulf, mixing with petroleum and dispersant, and nothing is being done to address the situation. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Do we not understand that we get one chance to save this planet? And that saving our planet is the very definition of redemption? After experiencing the manmade destruction of my sacred place, I’ve come to understand there are people who apparently don’t possess an empathy gene and, as such, are capable of inflicting massive harm. But ignorance, apathy, and greed are just as dangerous and just as much in play. Glaciers are becoming their own rivers. Extreme weather is rampant. Species are disappearing at a rate that is up to 10,000 times greater than what would happen if humans did not exist. We are creating a period of extinction, what biologists call the sixth great extinction, and it is being primarily propelled by our addiction to fossil fuels. Gas is under three dollars a gallon, prompting a boom in truck sales. What’s next, the return of the dinosaur-sized, hydrocarbon spewing Hummer? The Florida legislature is on the precipice of opening up the entire state to fracking. This is more evidence we have elected people who are insane. Florida is essentially a thin crust of limestone veiling and protecting our lifeblood, the Florida Aquifer. The aquifer is the source of our drinking water and feeds our natural abundance. The aquifer is interconnected. You dump poisons in the north and they will circulate throughout the system. Fracking would bust through the limestone, contaminating the totality of the water table. In a First Amendment-wreaking edict, officials banned Florida Department of Environmental Protection employees from using the phrases “climate change” or “global warming.” Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, but the facts on the ground don’t change. I am reminded ever more of the Cree prophecy, “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize you cannot eat money.” Prior to drilling underwater wells, energy companies conduct studies to pinpoint oil deposits below the ocean floor using sonic cannons. According to Time Magazine, the cannons “emit sound waves louder than a jet engine every ten seconds for weeks at a time.” Common sense and science tells us this is detrimental to marine life. We are stressing our environment—air, water, flora, fauna—to the breaking point. Sometimes I wonder if the rich and powerful won’t be sated until everything is gone: all the sweet water, all the animals, all the good air, all of us . . . you cannot eat money. According to the excellent 2014 documentary on the Gulf oil disaster, The Great Invisible, in the past decade 111 energy bills have been proposed in Congress and only five have become law. Those five contained subsidies for nuclear and fossil fuel energy sources. The 106 bills that did not survive all contained alternative energy provisions. Fact and metaphor: Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from the remains of dead animals and plants that died millions of years ago. Their transformation from corpse to the earth’s hidden blood also took millions of years. Fossil fuels—dead animals and plants that underwent transmogrification—are not renewable. Nearly every aspect of our modern life is fueled with their blood, with the fragile bones of death. As far as I can tell, wind and solar power do not intersect with any blood, ancient or otherwise. And I suspect the same will hold true for marvelous energy sources not yet invented. Life fueled on the remains of a million (and far more) fragile bones is not only unsustainable, it’s killing us. Must we do everything in our power to embrace clean, renewable energy? Resoundingly, yes. What other choice do we have? Our fossil fuel addiction is a form of slow suicide. And with each tick of the clock, our demise speeds up. Tick, tick, tick: closer to the brink. Whoosh. We cannot risk trying to perform CPR on a cadaver. My poor mother tried. It didn’t work. It never does. In Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese,” she writes: You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Let us all, with infinite devotion, love this good earth. Let us understand with greater intimacy the meaning of “home.” Let us love with ever expanding intention and purpose, placing greater faith in nature and science. Let us view our planet and all its moving parts—stars, galaxies, winding rivers—with a shaman’s fierce gaze, a scientist’s deep knowledge, and a child’s open heart. Yes. Let us love enough and more than enough. Now. Today. Forever.

--Connie May Fowler

 Cozumel, Mexico