Women and Water, New Mythologies from Old

Women and water are inseparable, just as women and Mother Earth are one. I've been struggling to merge my bookmarks, to find the experience in this realm that deserves my brilliant passion above all others (thank you, Rob Brezsny, and Pronoia.) This year I pared some tabbed finds. I eliminated two folders named Shopping and Jewelry. Last year I tried unsuccessfully to stuff the jewelry folder into the shopping folder leaving a trail of stuff I neither need nor want. Today it's all gone. My google profile is shortened, and sweetened. It will be revised again as blogger profiles are going away and some gobbledygoogled google + facebook knockoff is coming online. The stuff I'm looking up on the internet can be bookmarked into multiple folders. Michigan issues are World issues are Women issues are Water issues are Ecology and Economy issues. Even bookmarks are becoming One. I said out loud at lunch this week "water is a women's issue." Water and women are one. Water myths leave out women, but that women are left out is ancient. I'm putting her back in. Unktehi is a water creature. Mishibizhiw is a water panther who may have been a true creature back in the day, and lives in Anishinaabe, Potawatomi and Ojibwe Great Lakes oral history and pictographs. Glacial phenomena may be part of the oral tradition. Jökulhlaups may have been viewed as gigantic water serpents, in Iceland, the Missouri River geology, or anywhere else gargantuan water and glacial upheavals were witnessed. Walk in Lake Huron or Lake Michigan or Lake Superior sand, waved by the water and imagine an enormous serpent causing the ripples. It is Great Lakes women who must cause the ripples that will protect our fresh water habitat; that will allow us to still walk in and see the ripples in the water. I pictographically give us wings to speed our way.

In the Realm of Meant To Be

I hunted for a cabochon. I have hunted late nights for years, not knowing why I sought one. My internet bookmarks are loaded with saved search results, although there is always something else to take my meager funds. I dream. I search. I wait. And one night there is the cabochon. Like all serious searches, the vision arrived when I was seeking something else. The dream is a lampwork raku flower in the colors of the great waters of earth. Five petals like the five Great Lakes that surround my home. The artist is Deborah Lambson (etsy shop kenzee), a glass artist in Tel Aviv, Israel, near the waters of the Mediterranean. As I wait for the glass art to arrive, I collect what I'll use to make the ring. I ask Dad if what I have in mind will work. And then I numb my fingers in artistic creative bliss. Dremeling, polishing, fitting. And when these creations come together I have a ring of power. A warrior woman ring. To it will gather the meant to be realm of the rest of my life. This is art: experience, seeking, work, creation. Art is personal. When art and personal combine it is sublime.

Bruce Power Withdraws Application

Senator Stabenow's office just called to report that Ontario energy company Bruce Power has withdrawn its application to ship 16 one hundred ton nuclear contaminated steam generators on the Great Lakes, through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic Ocean to Sweden. This is a brilliant reversal on behalf of the American people, and the Great Lakes populations - flora, fauna, swimming, four-legged and two appreciate the Senator's work, and all other champions who made this unhappen. Great news for the Great Lakes! Thank you, Senator Stabenow. Thank you, Marta, and thanks be to the water deities who watch over this blessed watershed.

Canadian Nuclear Waste Is U.S. Problem

Ontario Power, the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization, and Bruce Power are eyeing the shore of Lake Huron for a deep geologic repository of nuclear waste. Bruce Power also is seeking permissions to ship 16 one hundred ton nuclear-contaminated steam generators to Sweden using the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. Ross Lamont at Bruce Power claims this transport will "pose no danger to the public." I've got a house along that route, and I feel endangered. First Nations, Candice Miller (R-MI10), and Macomb Co., Harrison Twp., St. Clair Shores all resolved to oppose the repository. But Ontario Power and Bruce Power are moving forward regardless. Kincardine is 55 miles from Michigan. The transport route for the contaminated containers will sweep Michigan, Pennsylvania, NY, and the entire St. Lawrence watershed. These issues are handled by the International Joint Commission. John Nevin, spokesman for the Commission said nobody's asked them to review the proposal to store nuclear waste on the beach of Lake Huron. Does somebody ask him to breathe when he gets up in the morning? What the hell's his job? Bruce Power is still trying to line up permissions to transport nuclear waste through U.S. waters. Let's make sure permission is denied. Support the First Nations working to stop endangering the Great Lakes. As the First Nations write: Water is alive and has spirit. Water is our life source. Water also needs a voice. If the Canadians want to play chicken with our life source, then it is up to the U.S.A. to stop them.

Rep. Fred Upton Endangers Michigan Water

Representative Fred Upton thinks grilling the Environment Protection Agency is his duty. Upton, from the 6th Congressional District is flexing his muscles as the new Chair of the Energy and Commerce Commission and bragging that he'll have Lisa Jackson, EPA, on the carpet so often he'll save a parking place for her. Upton's district includes the Kalamazoo River, site of one of the worst oil spills in Michigan history last year. The EPA has its foot firmly on the throat of our economic recovery, says Upton. Upton is up for reelection in 2012. Perhaps the constituents in his district will find a way to curb Representative Upton's enthusiasm for undoing the small progress that's been made to keep the Great Lakes, the U.S.A. and the earth from continued desecration.

Great Lakes Record Heat

June average temperatures for all five Great Lakes are significantly higher than the previous decade. Detroit News writer Jim Lynch wrote "It's unclear how the higher temperatures will affect Lake Superior's fish populations in the long run..." In Lynch's article, Bill Deedler, a forecaster with the National Weather Service wouldn't "go so far" as saying the changes are a result of climate change, and "declined to say whether patterns are evidence of global warming espoused by many researchers."

The tone (and headline) of the article congratulates beachgoers on their lucky break. The Port Huron Times Herald ran a story by Jason Alexander headlined "Come On In! The Water's Fine!, Bathers revel in 'balmy' Lake Huron."

This backhanded reporting contributes to negating urgency needed to save the world's largest source of fresh water from turning into an overheated swamp. It's irresponsible. If the newspapers in Michigan aren't concerned about the effect of climate change on our environment, we must be. Get the facts about climate change. You don't know how higher temperatures will affect the Great Lakes fish population? Find out, damn it!

Waterlife

The Great Lakes breathe in Kevin McMahon's film, Waterlife. Only 3 percent of the world's water is freshwater, and we need to preserve it, cherish it, and fight for its life. Like a precious and desperately ill loved one, we need to restore our water to health. Global screenings this year can be found at the Our Waterlife site.