MAY 27, 2025 – Today I engaged in my usual routine when at the Red Cabin—I took a long hike up and down the trails of the Björnholm “tree garden,” trimming encroaching vegetation as I proceeded, and checking the latest growth displayed by the hundreds, nay thousands, of young pine. With the pittance of snow last winter and the continuing severe drought this spring, the trees are under stress. Nevertheless, they’re showing their resilience. One five-foot-high white pine sapling that I’ve been monitoring added a full inch of vertical height in just the past 24 hours.
As I descended from the heights, I heard a loon call from the lake, hidden from view by the spring foliage. It reminded me of the whole chorus of loons yesterday evening echoing back and forth along our shore as we sat on the screen porch, talking time away.
The salient benefit of being in these surroundings, walking through the woods, hearing the haunting call of the loon, watching an eagle snatch its piscine sustenance out of the water, gaping at the stars on a clear night, is the humbling reminder of my place in the world, in the cosmos. Without these frequent retreats into nature’s embrace, there arises the tendency to take oneself all too seriously.
But there also emerges in this place a propensity to think about the anthropic world from which I’m insulated here. From a distance, how does that world look—the one we’ve created within the one nature gives us? Excluding the headlines crafted to capture and hold our thoughts hostage, what are civilization’s most pressing challenges? How, in a perfect world, could we order our lives and affairs to optimize them?
In short order these questions devolve from an intellectual undertaking to a philosophical exercise to a dangerous mind game. Yet, once the frightening high-flying amusement park ride is over, perhaps some good can come from it, once the passengers have recovered their nerves, bearings and land legs.
Today as I used my hand-clippers to snip-snip along the trails, I imagined a conversation with myself . . .
ME ONE: Where do we start?
ME TOO: From 100,000 feet.
ME ONE: Give me more.
ME TOO: Well, looking down, we’re pretty screwed up.
ME ONE: Americans or people in general?
ME TOO: Both, but since we’re looking down above the U.S., let’s confine our discussion to Americans.
ME ONE: Okay. What gives?
ME TOO: In the midst of our current chaos, our priorities need to be re-ordered.
ME ONE: You mean putting the rule of law ahead of unlawful detentions and deportations by ICE?
ME TOO: No, no, no. I mean, I don’t disagree with you about assigning priority to the rule of law, in any event, but I’m thinking of something far more basic . . .
. . . From the ground level, we’re myopic. In one sense, that trait is essential to our survival. If a guy isn’t focused on the next 10 seconds, he won’t jump out of the way before he’s flattened by an oncoming bus. On the other hand, pre-occupation with what’s happening now and next week in lives, diverts us from mission critical efforts to address climate change, which will have a profound effect on us in the longer-term. Our basic problem is that we’re dribbling and passing the ball up and down the basketball court, occasionally shooting but seldomly scoring, with absolutely no overall game strategy.
ME ONE: What then do we do?
ME TOO: We call a time out, and from a very high level, we ask, what matters most for us to avoid extinction and once that’s settled, what conditions are necessary—and eventually, optimal—for us to thrive? . . . Wanna take a first stab?
ME ONE: Well, not to be too ridiculous about it, but the first things that come to mind are air, water, nutrition and shelter.
ME TOO: Can I amend to clean air and water, healthful nutrition, affordable shelter?
ME ONE: Sure, but now you’re going political on me.
ME TOO: Sorry—if you think “clean,” “healthful,” and “affordable” are political. For now I won’t refine “air,” “water,” “nutrition,” or “housing,” any further, and at this juncture I’m definitely not focused on how we address our needs—not yet, anyway. I’m simply suggesting a starting point for a methodical, constructive, and comprehensive approach to our problems in this country. With that as backdrop, do you want to continue listing our priorities in the order of criticality? (Cont.)
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
