Biophilia: The Love of Life and the Living World

“Splendor awaits in minute proportions.”
― Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia

Here is Burlingame, CA,  which is the home of SFO and its attendant fleet of airport hotels, trucking companies, passenger shuttles, warehouses, security headquarters, and cargo forwarders.  Pairs of aircraft  roar over the water in five minute intervals as they approach the airport.  Cars roar by on the freeway that feeds into fabled San Francisco. Their reflections flash in the sleek black glass buildings that line the highway.

There is also, in Burlingame, an un-authorized footpath at the edge of the water – a wild space to wander  if one would escape the hotel grounds with their carefully arranged plantings.  The path follows the waterline above broken slags of concrete – remnants of a more manicured edging of the shore? – and between scraggly and indomitable tufts of wild fennel.   A man in a street sweeping vehicle is letting his pit-bull pup out to play at the edge of a parking lot and a field of orange California poppies and dry grasses.   Further on there is an abandoned development planted in rosemary and irises, concrete esplanades crumbling into the pale green water and an elaborate wrought-iron gateway to the empty space, a space in the process of being reclaimed by grasses and small trees.  Across the street is a construction site where machines are digging into the chalky soil for the foundation of another office building or hotel. 

Along the footpath there are  bunches of lavender wild-flowers.  Small wonders of the world, these throw-away riches of California!

 

 

 

4 Replies to “Biophilia: The Love of Life and the Living World”

  1. Throw-away riches.

    Apt.

    Interesting from Nature’s vantage point – the new organisms in a disturbed cite might be seen as an investment. Something to build upon. Interest on such an investment leads to further riches. Nothing to be thrown away in this instance. Cause for biophilia.

    1. Good to hear from you, Clem, I’ve been missing your unique point of view. I hope you and your wife are doing well, and that the summer is going well for you.
      I have a huge affection for little wild and re-wilding bits of land.

      1. We’ve had a pretty difficult planting season here. Add in the health scare (which appears to be completely behind us now – and thanks for the concern) and time away from the keyboard was a necessity.

        Here on the mainland we’re not hearing much about the volcano any longer. Has it settled down significantly?

        Wild fires in the west and police being shot (or doing the shooting) seem to be filling in the small spaces between Trump’s tweets and speculation about what he and Putin will come up with next.

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