Reports of My Death Have been Greatly Exaggerated

A Happy Earth Day
to ALL life on our planet -
let's commence learning.

I was fortunate last night that the following video came across my feed, featuring Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who Marek and I both adore, along with comedian Chuck Nice, in a Star Talk video explaining the origins and lead up to the creation of the first Earth Day in 1970.

This is, in large part, also an explanation of how my own staunch dedication to improving our natural environment came about, and why, along with noting a number of the influences that helped to launch the environmental movement that began in earnest in the early 1970s.

After some back and forth between Tyson and comedian Nice, including Nice cracking Tyson up completely by quipping about Earth being a flat disk, my favorite snippet, which begins around 6:21, has Tyson explaining how the first image of Earth from space had an immense effect on our collective psyche, as we suddenly saw it for what it is, a small, blue borderless planet, alone in the vastness of space:

"I submit to you that we - Americans, the Apollo program, NASA - went to the moon to explore the moon, but we discovered Earth, for the first time.

"I submit to you that a cosmic perspective descended on us all as a kind of firmware upgrade in our consciousness."

And I can attest that, at least regarding myself, my friends and family, and my surrounding community, he is absolutely correct. So many attitudes changed so quickly, and even overnight, that it was staggering.

But that initial photo of earthrise over the moon was far from our only influence, nor would the influences stop coming.

As Tyson states, many point to Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" as the beginning of the modern environmental movement, which delineated the dilemma of using pesticides to grow our foods and the likely consequences of doing so, predicting decades in advances many of the environmental devastations that we are seeing play out today.

My parents got the book when it came out, which was an international bestseller, though my own reading would not come until much later, as I was a whopping three years old upon its publication. But it was a book, and concept, much discussed around our dinner table, then, and for many years to come.

But Carson's book was far from the first book that brought attention to our natural environment, and how we were changing it in inexorable and possibly irreparable ways; John Steinbeck had already done that in 1945's "Cannery Row," beloved of marine biologists everywhere, as his close friendship with a local marine biologist, along with the man's insightful observations, made their way into the pages of the book.

Aldo Leopold's "The Sand County Almanac" told a similar cautionary tale, this time of the fragile desert landscapes of the American Southwest.

And Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of famed aviator and conservationist Charles Lindbergh, and an aviator in her own right, as well as the published author of thirteen well-received and influential books, noted after attending the Cape Kennedy launch of Apollo 8, the same first manned space flight to orbit the moon of which Neil DeGrasse Tyson spoke, noted in her book "Earth Shine," that the Apollo 8 flight and the pictures it sent back of Earth gave humankind "a new sense of Earth's richness and beauty."

Understated, and mic drop, simultaneously.

And then in 1971, Marvin Gaye released the remarkable album "What's Going On," with the title track sounding as though it was ripped from today's headlines:

Mother mother, there's too many of you crying
Brother brother brother, there's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way to bring some loving here today

Father father, we don't need to escalate
War is not the answer for only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way to bring some loving here today

Picket lines, and picket signs,
don't punish me with brutality,
Talk to me, so you can see,
Oh, what's going on, what's going on,
Tell me what's going on, I'll tell you what's going on . . .

A remarkable song in its own right.

But the original song that put Marvin Gaye on my personal musical radar was his astounding take on "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," originally recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and later covered by Credence Clearwater Revival.

But it was Marvin Gaye's 1968 release that, for me, will always be the definitive version of that song.

Keeping in mind that my father, in addition to being a jazz pianist and a schoolteacher, also coached budding vocalists, who came to our home in the evenings to work with him, with him playing either his Steinway grand or his electric organ. And some were damned good.

We also had a wide variety of music in our home, and discussed it frequently, so when I heard Marvin Gaye's remarkable vocal ability on that song, I knew immediately that I was hearing something very special, even though I was only nine years old when the song was released in the summer of 1968.

I'm certain that most of you reading this are familiar with his classic rendition, which is why I'd like to share the following version I came across several years ago, of Marvin Gaye, singing his classic version of the song, but stripped of all background and instrumental tracks: just the man, and his remarkable voice.

And, and as a vocalist myself, it is truly a thing of beauty.

But the Marvin Gaye song that has always meant the most to me, as I was a budding conservationist and environmentalist from childhood, was the song "Mercy Mercy Me," aka "The Ecology," also from his 1971 album "What's Going On."

In it, Gaye voiced my own hopes and dreams for how we humans would finally begin treating our natural environment and its inhabitants, bringing attention to our overuse of pesticides, our completely asinine use of nuclear power, the cynical dumping of wastes on Native American lands, and more.

I simply cannot begin to state how much this song meant to me, twelve or thirteen years old at the time, but my dad knew, as it was one of the few songs he ever asked me to provide him the lyrics to, since he knew how very much it moved me.

And, quite frankly, five decades later, it still does.

Truth be told, my intention was to finish this post this morning, 22 April 2021, in time for Earth Day, and have it posted before noon.

Then a close friend called me around 10 AM this morning, giving me the unwelcome news that a mutual close friend had died the night before, leaving me feeling utterly gutshot.

I texted Marek to see if he was awake, but he didn't respond, and so I waited.

Then he called me shortly after noon, to give me the news I'd been dreading to give to him, as he'd since learned of it on Facebook.

I'll give the short version, by way of my Facebook post, only because I knew most of our friend's friends were on Facebook:

"Greatly saddened to learn this morning of the passing of our wonderful friend and reflexologist Gary Stahl, RCR, who was among the first really close friends we made after moving to Tennessee, and has remained one ever since.

"We both feel like we've lost a member of our family.

"Gary was a a wonderful man, who adored his family, and who helped SO many people; he truly lived to serve others, and we will always cherish the time we spent with him, and the many wonderful and fascinating conversations we had, on every subject imaginable, over the years.

"Our dog Lolo absolutely adored him.

"I have no doubt that there are many more people grieving this news than we will ever know.

"Rest in Peace, my friend, and be secure in the knowledge that you were and remain greatly loved by those you've left behind."

Marek and I last saw Gary on the 8th/9th of April, the dual date only because we were all three night people, and our original appointment lasted until just after midnight, as usual.

And I'm so grateful that we saw him that night, as it had been a couple of months since we had last seen him, and it's important to us both that we saw him then, and reiterated that we both loved him, and considered him important in our lives.

And Gary, in all the time I knew him, never failed to let us know how much he loved us in return. He was a friend beyond measure. One of a kind, and irreplaceable.

I'm sorry that he never made it back to his beloved Sedona, Arizona, as he stated many times how much he wanted to relocate there, but at the same time, I have zero doubt that he and his brother, who predeceased him, are there now, and having a grand time.

For all my Hive peeps, I've been going through some health issues of my own, but mostly, and frankly, the bullshit we went through with #traitortrump left me more depressed than I've been in three decades.

It took me a while to come back from that, but come back from it I have, and I'm finally ready to really engage again.

Thank you all for still being here, for hanging in, and thank you especially for Hive account@riverflows, for being the inspiration that showed me unequivocally that, as I've been saying for years, Life is wonderful, and is getting better, better, and better!