Hooray for Dandelions

It has been a joy to see Lincoln inundated with dandelions this spring. I suppose my cynical side didn’t expect any to pop up, since they need pollinators to propagate and the nation is seeing a decline in honeybees. The return of the weed is what gives me hope that in our future, there’s still food.

If you follow my twitter, you might have seen that I came across a statistic that one third of America’s honeybees were wiped out this past winter. That’s not good. The same source stated that one third of all our food is directly or indirectly made by bees. (Dairy products aren’t pollinated, but come from cows which are overwintered on crops which require bee pollination, like alfalfa.)

It makes me angry to hear of a certain seed company who is just ravaging the agriculture industry, driving out family farms by leveling law suits against them for using patented seeds, which have been genetically modified to include neonicotinoid insecticides (a chemical linked to Colony Collapse Disorder as traces have been found in the empty hives).

This week’s blog doesn’t have a big word for you, just a big concept: weeds are good.

Dandelions are an important food source to honeybees. That’s why they’re so prevalent during the summer months. Their invaluableness to the bees is rewarded by being pollinated.

I have urged all of my family and friends to let the weeds grow this summer. And I encourage you to do the same. Help the bees out and let their numbers build back up.

Their future and yours depends on it. 

My Lips Are Sealed

"You want to sell me what?
How did you get this number?"

My life has been extremely blog-worthy of late, and yet, I’ve shared none of it due to a new character in my life. Recent encounters with this character have quickly and succinctly proved that he might need to borrow some of my own adventures (the better ones too) for his own. Sadly, that means I can’t share with you what the telemarketer tried to sell me this week.

You’d laugh. But if I told you now, when one of my characters is put in a similar situation in a future book, you’ll think I’ve run out of ideas.

But see, that’s what writers do. They become so consumed with an idea that they must write about it.

In the forward to “East of Eden,” (both the book and the forward I highly recommend!) I discovered that Steinbeck was inspired by his own divorce, his own relationships with his children, etc.

Now of course, a conversation with a telemarketer isn’t as grand as the themes in “East of Eden,” but it’s my story. And when the details flow in unison with ideas, I'll have created something more than a string of words.

Reticent -- reluctant to communicate, reserved

Recalcitrant -- disobedient, unruly

Tacit -- silence, especially a portion of music

Vicarious -- by means of substitution for another