Earth Day Mother

Rachel Carson, a writer-scientist, may be considered the philosophical mother of the Earth Day movement (begun in 1970) with the publication of her seminal work, Silent Spring in 1962. I remember reading it right away. I started married life and homemaking in 1965 with a small library that included Carson's book. My peers in the late 60's thought me weird to want to prepare homemade baby food, use cloth diapers, and save water and trees. We moved to Florida, where I wrote about Pelican Island, and the remarkable comeback of the brown pelican from near extinction by DDT, as Carson had warned. That article was one of my first triumphs as a freelancer. By the 80's I went "back to the land", albeit with a microwave and convection oven, and entered my "earth mother" years with a yoga and tofu vengeance. Our organic garden and eggs were wonders (and very expensive). It has been satisfying to see others catch up to my weird ideas, and I can only hope it's not too late to save the earth from the disasters global warming brings (which Carson also predicted). Mother Earth is now the only mother I have, and I celebrate her.

[writing nonfiction]