I come from Wisconsin, the land of cheese, where the soil is black, rocks are round and water lays upon the land shining. The key message I grew up with was “find your niche and stick in it.” But how could I pick something and get stuck there? What if it got boring? After 30-odd years of adventuring around various niches, I stumbled upon The Environment. The perfect niche for me, it includes everything! It’s challenging, but never boring. So at 50-odd, I am fulfilling my purpose in life by educating others about The Environment, everything ‘round about us, which sustains us, and which we humans pretty much ignore. Now I live and work in St. Louis, Missouri, the heart of my continent, the confluence of the fourth largest watershed on Earth. It’s a good niche to stick in and focus.

Frankly, I’m in this for the trees, rocks, worms, bugs, green plants, water, air - the members of Earth’s diverse communities who can’t speak up in ways our kind is used to hearing. Now that GREEN IS IN (hooray!) many other dedicated humans are saying what I was limited to communicating for a long time, “change your light bulbs and recycle,” so I get to deliver a deeper message. I get to translate some of The Environment’s own know-how into terms human beings can hear. Earth’s diverse communities are our relations. Earth’s living systems live in us, and we are alive and thriving because these “invisible” systems continually sustain us. The Environment keeps us healthy, solvent, growing, mobile.

Earth’s got some spectacularly wonderful stuff to teach us - systems, relationships, interdependence - if we’re hip enough to get the message. My motto is In Cycles We Trust. People have wised up and pulled together in some pretty sticky times before. I am willing to believe we are doing it again. Maybe not all of us, but enough to make a big turn. All of our Green efforts do add up, and I’m sticking with it.