Productivity Based Society: Commentary, Scene1, Act 1

"Productivity is simply the quantity of living material an ecosystem can generate in a given period of time. This is just as important for agricultural systems as it is for natural ecosystems. Michael Swift, a biologist at the United Nations Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Program in Kenya, has demonstrated convincingly the benefit of species diversityin agricultural systems. The best way to increse productivity in a maize field is by adding melons, trees, and nitrogen-fixing beans, not by squeezing in more maize. In their experiments at Imperial College's field station in England, John Lawton and his colleagues also found that productivity is boosted by species diversity. The result makes immediate sense, once you see it. Individuals of a single species will compete for the same resources, particulary space. Individuals of different species-some small in height, some meduim, some tall-can take advantage of different spatial territory. More of the available space is used, so more individuals are supported, giving higher productivity." - Richard Leaky

Where I live was once country. I remember how the end of the road behind our home narrowed slowly to one lane and then to gravel and then to dirt and opened into a field full of flowers and blackberrys, honeysuckle and white-tailed deer and sunsets. There was a pond full of fish that and frogs, ducks and geese and snakes that was one of the first places I learned to sit quietly and listen to the inner voice, to let the clouds roll by with my own thoughts. Even in the late 90's when I was into playing football and making my musculars bigger I can remember running through those patures with a log on my shoulders like I had seen on the TV. So much has changed in a decade. Exatctly where the pond used to be is an EarthFare, that is the heart of a shopping center with a dry cleaners, Quiznos, RedRobin, Sticky Fingers, Hickory Tavern, and all surrounded by three story buildings and parking decks that are connected to the Toringdon Business Complexy where humans, one singular species, works. Rather, labels what they do with their time during M-F 6am-6pm as work. Now the road behind our home that used to lead to sunrise and wild strawberrys is a major corridor for people attempting to save time by avoiding traffic by creating traffic. They put in those speed humps and I can't tell you how consistantly I hear peoples gear boxes on their transmissions cut into the asphalt as they blow over it around 35mph.

Productivity based society has an alarm clock nation rising and shining in unison. All autos started, pushing for the same points, competing for the same resources in the same space, chugging into the building in the morning and and out in the afternoon, before the Freaks come out. With one big puff out smoke daily wooshing up, up, as our contribution to the rest of the planet. Theres a sign on the temporary chainlink fence they've set up around the job site of the new Marriot being built across from the EarthFare. It reads as follows: "It's not worth your life." An allusion to the required hard had that must be worn if you chose to enter. The graphitti artist in me wants to make an addition that says, "Just the life of an Owl, Rat, Fox, Deer, and Pond."

No longer will I believe that I'm not productive. I am alive and well. And whole.

Let your hair shine against the sun, and contrast your flesh against the sillouettes.

Thank God for the bacteria on the roots and the fungus on your eyelashes.