The Answer, My Friend, is Blowin' in the Wind

I have a huge propensity for being judgemental, and I ask God almost daily to forgive me and help me to overcome this character flaw, but I cannot help but say that I am utterly appalled by the latest intention of Bill Gates, revealed to me this week. How can he think for one minute that he has the right to release man-made toxic dust into the atmosphere, and consequently the air I breathe, to try to lessen the impact of the sun's rays? Trying to be God would be his right, at his own peril, if he wasn't committing harm to the rest of us in the process.

On this lovely sunny Sunday in April, here is what I believe:

1. God's creation was perfect. Genesis 1:31

2. We have abused it throughout history, even though we were mandated to care for it. Genesis 1:26

3. We will not right former wrongs by flooding the planet with self-serving, man-made substances whose consequences are entirely unknown, whether they are genetically engineered organisms that damage the microbiome of the soil, and our gut, while allowing the soil, water, and air to be further polluted with toxins, or massive quantities of calcium carbonate released into the air, over other peoples' sovereign territory, no less, or who knows what next scheme massively rich and powerful people and corporations on planet earth are devising. Genesis 11:4

Let us not despair; we have the power to be the change. Thank you Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Sweden and Greenpeace Sweden, and The Saami Council, for continuing to defend the rights not only of the reindeer-herding people from Norway to Russia, but the rest of us mere mortals on planet earth by opposing both The Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, as well as the entire premise of geoengineering research that affects every single one of us and our children and grandchildren, without any international consensus or permission.

A fabulous second step, in my humble opinion, runs a little closer to home. No one should be allowed to prevent anyone else from drying their clothes outside. I'm serious! How did Landlords, Strata Councils, and Municipalities ever gain the right to prevent people from harmlessly harnessing wind power to dry their clothes while simultaneously reducing the release of pollutants (including toxins from synthetic fabric), energy consumption, and carbon emissions? According to The Guardian, "A household running a dryer 200 times a year could save nearly half a tonne of CO2e by switching to a clothes rack or washing line." (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/nov/25/carbon-footprint-load-laundry)

Someone decided that clotheslines didn't look nice, therefore people should be compelled to dry their clothes in a way that pollutes and costs money, and then we can force them to pay for and start breathing chalk dust, and then pay for the mess that is created when we try to artificially manipulate weather, and oh yes, pay for all of the medical treatment that will be required when our source of free, life-giving Vitamin D is removed.

I happen to believe that my preferred method of drying clothes, inherited from my mother and my grandmothers, is a thing of beauty.

Brian E. Korchinski, who happened to paint one of our former homes loved the laundry on the line, and so did I. (Thank you to our friends, Paul and Carmen for gifting us this painting of the home we loved so much). Hanging clothes on the line, while listening to the birds and feeling the sun and breeze on my face, is one of my most therapeutic, joyful, mindful practices, and the sensory experience of sleeping on line-dried bedding cannot be equalled by anything Bill Gates or his followers attempt to synthesize.

Please, my politically-savvy friends, show me how to begin a world-wide campaign to restore the right of individuals to line-dry their laundry in the wind and unobstructed sun because, as Bob Dylan told us way back in 1962, "the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind...the answer is blowin' in the wind."