Friday Random Ten

• Jackson Browne, "Doctor My Eyes". "Doctor, my eyes cannot see the sky. Is this the price for having learned how not to cry?" A classic.
• Aladdin soundtrack, "A Whole New World". We learned to sing and sign this one in fifth grade!
• Peter, Paul and Mary, "Oh, Rock My Soul"
• Kathy Mar, "Child's Song". A melancholy song about leaving home.
• John Lennon, "Imagine". Music just doesn't get much better than this. Certainly a song we need to hear.
• Jackson Browne, "For a Dancer". "Keep a fire for the human race."
• Gaia Consort, "Falling". Walking is falling and catching yourself.
• Johnny Cash, "The One on the Left is on the Right". No, it's not about Congress, but it is a very funny song about a folk group torn apart by political differences.
• Kathy Mar, "Flowering Green". Talk about getting what you deserve!
• Wishing Chair, "Three Doors". A song about Ellis Island.

Home and the Big Here

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I'm a fan of WorldChanging, and a couple of weeks ago, they posted an essay that I've been meaning to comment on. The question raised in the essay is, "Where is home?".

"Home is a fiercely individual concept: it's hard to articulate all the elements that make a 'home'; our location, and notion, of home may change over time; we may not be able to live at home for various reasons; and how we are comfortable with our environment and the people around us are all, I think, wrapped up in this notion of 'home.'"

I lived in Los Angeles for 16 years but don't think it was ever home to me. Some parts of it felt comfortable and I developed emotional attachments to my high school and the LA Eco-Village, but the city itself was simply there. Furthermore, I did not particularly like the there. When I think of good things about LA, I think of people, not places.

Where is home, then? For most of my life, I've had a deep emotional connection to temperate deciduous forests. I don't know what it is about the forest landscape that makes me feel peaceful and comfortable, but it's powerful. Two years ago, I got to spend a summer at Cranberry Lake Biological Station in the Adirondacks and upon arrival, I immediately felt it to be home. It was there that I hit upon the phrase, "Home is where what is inside you matches what is outside you".

What about now? I'm living in Athens, GA, which has the forests I so love, although many areas are still dominated by pine. There are many things -- and people -- I like here, but the city does have problems. (The public transportation system sucks!) Will Athens become home? I don't know yet.

In connection with this, I will start doing Kevin Kelly's "Big Here" quiz, which provides a structure for exploring the place where you live. Stay tuned for question 1!

Fungal Blogging

The new Festival of the Trees is up and seems to have an unusual number of fungal posts. There's a post about a huge artist's conk (Ganoderma applanatum) and one with pictures of several fungi, most likely wood-rotters, growing on trees. But the close-up mushroom photos on Riverside Rambles take the cake!