Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art and Environment

Ed Hessler 

Welcome to CGEE, Friday, February 19 2021 from Saint Paul where it is warmer. What a cold week but you ain't felt nothing here. To the north of the Twin Cities there has been a string of record lows and daytime highs in northern Minnesota.

Today is the 50th day of 2020 during which 1200 hours have slipped into the past which means that 13.70% of this 2021 is gone. The sun rises at 7:06 am and sets at 5:46 pm. There is the daily magic of more light; the sequence light to be followed by heat that can be felt.

Today's food celebration is National Chocolate Mint Day. Foodimentary provides a history, minty pictures (what a green, green plant) and a round-up of food events that occurred on this day.

Potent Quote. Writing in 1831, the keen French observer Alexis de Toqueville observed that US citizens were "insensible to the wonders of inanimate nature...their eyes are fixed upon another sight: the American views its own march across the wilds, drying swamps, turning the course of rivers, peopling solitudes, and subduing nature (Source: The Feather Thief, Penguin, Kirk Wallace Johnson).

Today's poem is by Joe Mills. It considers with tenderness, grace and humor an enduring question one might ask on Valentine's day or any day.