Dear Neighbor,
This week we celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s a wonderful time to pause and give thanks to the blessings we all enjoy. Despite each of us having some level of personal challenge in our lives, we still are truly blessed compared to most people in the rest of world.
It’s a great time to join with friends and family to count those many blessings and give thanks to our Lord, from which all good things come.
I have to confess, this past week I have spent quite a bit of time deer hunting. The weather finally improved, making it much more enjoyable to be in the woods. I had success; even impressed myself with a single on-target 230-yard shot.
Our extended family hunts on the farm we own. Some of the acreage has has been in the family for a 100-plus years. We have a pretty good idea where the deer are. The family elder, my Dad, at age 91 was successful as usual this year – and so was one of our youngest nieces – in harvesting a deer.
We have plenty of venison cut, wrapped and in the freezer, as well as summer sauage and venison sticks in processing.
This last week I also included attending a daylong examination of our state’s environmental review processes, sponsored by Aitkin County and Dovetail Partners. Dr. Jim Bowyer, a U of M professor emeritus, provided a starting point for the discussion by detailing a troubling aspect of first-world nations, especially our own.
As a society we demand unlimited access to natural resources including forest products, minerals and petroleum based products as long as none is harvested or extracted in our back yard.
Dr. Bowyer’s book “The Irresponsible Pursuit of Paradise” is a wake-up call exposing how our consumption habits are doing great damage to the environment and the people of less developed nations.
We have the ability to harvest and extract natural resources in this county under the strictest of environmental rules, yet we continue to demand we do that in someone else’s backyard.
I agree with Dr. Bowyer in that, unless we change that approach which today may make us feel good about ourselves, it ultimately will end badly for the world our grandchildren and their children inherit from us.
Again, from Linda and me, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,
Dale