Ripples on the Pond

I was out doing some morning farm work when I looked and saw a significant smoke trail on the horizon.  It is certainly not the first time I've seen a smoke trail, but this one struck me because it had fooled me when I glanced out the window earlier in the morning into thinking the day was going to be very hazy.  Well, it was a little bit hazy, I suppose, but really it was more clear than anything.  

Now, before I go much further, let me assure you that this was not a house or barn fire - there appeared to be no emergency in progress.  Instead, it was a deliberate burn and I will give no more details than that - because that's not the point.

The point is this:

How often do we take an action and either fail to consider how it will impact others or simply decide to ignore the ripples that result when we throw a stone into the pond?

Just look how far that smoke had traveled from this single point.  It's a great example of what a temperature inversion (warmer air acting as a cap for cooler air and preventing smoke from rising further off the ground).

Tammy and I like to have our windows open, especially at night.  Unfortunately, there have been many times we have been awoken to the smell of smoke that causes one of us to get up to investigate in case we have a problem.  Usually, the smoke is from someone's fire miles away that has been capped by just such an inversion.  And, I am pretty certain that those who lit that little fire to burn their trash (or whatever) did not consider who else might be affected by what they were doing at that moment. 

But, this is not a rant about people burning things on days where there is a temperature inversion.  After all, where does that smoke go when there isn't a warm-air cap?  It goes higher into the atmosphere - along with so many other things we like to spew out into the air.  Eventually, it comes down in rain.  So, it's not as if it disappears.  It's still there.  And there is no telling where it will eventually land.

The point is this.  The things one person puts into the air (smoke from fires, pesticides, vehicle emissions - you name it) can impact places that are far away.  The ripples each of us make on the pond can make a difference in the lives of other people, places and things.

And we seem to have a difficult time taking that reality seriously.

 

What you are seeing now is a close-up picture of one of our ash trees that died after the Emerald Ash Borer came and infested all of the ash trees in our area.  The borer larvae essentially burrow (and eat) their way through the part of the tree just under the outer bark, where water and nutrients are transported to the branches and leaves.  The net result is that the tree dies.  This has been devastating in our area because there were a significant number of ashes on farmsteads and woods.

The Emerald Ash Borer originated in Russia and northern China and was first identified in the US in 2002.  The likely vector for travel was wood used in cargo ships for packing and crating consumer goods.  Now - 20 years later - we're lucky to find any ash trees that aren't dead or dying in Iowa.

The ripples on the pond have reached our shores.

How did it happen?  I'm sure we'll never know. And it isn't important that we pinpoint who made the decisions or made the mistakes that led to the use of infested wood for packaging.

Someone took a shortcut to get a job done that they were being pressured to do.  Someone decided that expending more effort, time or resources to make sure lumber was not infested was not worthwhile.  Someone wasn't even aware Emerald Ash Borers were a thing.  Or maybe someone decided it wasn't worthwhile to read through all of the restrictions for packing materials (that might have alerted them to the problem) because it was annoying and infringed on their rights to just get things done the way they wanted to do it.

After all, people don't often see these far flung results - the ripples that wash ashore somewhere else to become someone else's problems.  Besides, they're probably too busy being worried and bothered by the waves someone else has created that are flooding their own lives.

Happily, not all ripples in the pond are unwelcome.

I've noticed that some of the ditches on the gravel roads in our area have been exhibiting more flowers over the past several years.  A neighbor a half mile down the road put in many acres of pollinator habitat that includes these flowers.  It appears that one unintended (and welcome) consequence is that these flowers are showing up in ditches around us.

This is the great equalizer that we desperately need to remind ourselves of.  If you, or I, or someone else does something with forethought, wisdom and good intent, those ripples can also find their way to distant and unknown shores.

When we take the time to consider the consequences, both negative and positive, and we act on the positives - there is no telling how many lives and places may benefit in the end.