Hawk Watching

I spent four days out of the last week up on Putney Mountain, squinting at hawks, examining their details and features, taking pictures as best as I could, and enjoying the cool fresh air.

The passion I have for birdwatching is a newfound one and I'm not sure where it came from, but it's a serious thrill for me. I love the work I do, and I'm good at it, but more and more it's becoming one of those things that's not as interesting to me as the play I do outside of work.

And in the meantime, I'm not keeping up with politics, ignoring a lot of what's going on outside of this particularly narrow focus of interest, finding it increasingly difficult to read about the apparently fraudulent ABC 9/11 film, about the elections, etc.

Now, I know all of this is extremely important. I'm actually excited about the prospects in November, for the first time in a long time. But at the same time, I'm also reluctant to care too much because I've been burned so many times.

But really, this is important. It's not just about the Bush administration and it's absurdly wrongheaded policies. It's also about the relatively narrow window we're in as a planet to correct the crash course we're on with our own atmosphere if we don't do something soon to find cleaner fuel sources and resources.

Now, I'm not convinced the Democrats will get it right. I think they may screw it up as well, but I can't imagine them screwing it up in as monumentally horrific fashion as the Republicans. Obviously, getting these ideological neanderthals out of the White House is necessary as well, but at least with Democrats in control of one house of Congress, we can slow down the bleeding a little.