When I was six years old, the only form of environmental
degradation I had known was hair coloring for piglets.
It was 1967 and we lived on a small farm in Hungary, my brother
was three years old when he decided that he should try his
skills as a hairdresser for piglets.
Our twelve piglets were three months old at the time and ran
free in our large back yard in the company of
chickens, turkeys goats and other farm animals. The piglets were all
healthy, strong, playful, and white.
There is a Hungarian proverb that says: Variety is pleasurable.
My brother wanted patchy piglets. He had a good imagination and
some unconventional tools. He had brought a small bucket of corn
to entice the piglets to move closer to an open barrel of tar
from their usual feeding grounds. It was an old technique to use
hot tar under hardwood floors as an adhesive. We had some
leftover tar in the barrel, so when the piglets came closer to
it to enjoy the corn, Peter took advantage of the opportunity.
He dipped a piece of wood into the tar and used it as a
primitive brush to paint some black patches on the white
piglets. The piglets didn’t mind the hair coloring, maybe
because the wood had pleasantly tickled their skin.
My parents had a good laugh, no one got hurt, and the piglets
never complained about the incident or considered suing my
brother for defecating their image.
Countless things had changed since then… Including the way a
look at the tar like substance that littered the Florida
coastline, after last years disastrous spill.
When I lived in New Jersey, we used to go to on a family
vacation to an island off the North Carolina coast, called
Emerald Island. In 2002, a job transfer brought us closer to my
brother in Canada and further away from one of my favourite
spots on the globe.
It is 2010 and I haven’t seen the ocean in eight years…
I had missed it to a point where I had cravings for the sultry
mist that the crashing waves perspired from all the work they
had to do, turning over millions of seashells. I had missed
standing on the shore, listening to the rhythm of the waves and
looking out in the distance; after four or five rows of crashers
discovering where the light algae green water had transitioned
into cobalt blue.
Hermit crabs hurrying away from your footsteps carrying their
borrowed home. The warm afternoon waves of the high tide washing
bubbles and clean foam around your feet. If you stay in one spot
long enough, the waves steal a handful of sand away from right
under your feet and you feel like sinking into the sand and
becoming one with the shore. I love collecting seashells or
strange shaped driftwood; I even like the seagulls, always
searching for food or try to get a bite sized fish out of my
bait bucket.
I had promised my kids that we’ll go to the ocean together and
enjoy its beauty, experience its treasures as a family should. I
had promised a clean, wonderful environment, teaming with life:
dolphins, mullets, crabs, seashells, pelicans and white sea
herons searching the shores.
We had planned our vacation from June 20th-27th on Emerald Isle,
in North Carolina.
I remember the kids started packing a suitcase in the middle of
winter, they were so excited to go.
After the news about the Deepwater Horizon disaster I’ve checked
the progress of the spill and the predictions, praying that it
will not reach the North Carolina coastline before we get there.
I wanted more than anything, that my kids experience the clean,
undisturbed ocean before the spill gets into the Gulf.
I prayed and prayed for clean ocean, clean beaches, and edible
fish and crabs to catch. My kids had every right to experience
beautiful beaches, crystal clear, warm water and hundreds of
finger mullets swimming by them in the shallows. It is
interesting to read about it in books and see it on TV, but the
ocean only becomes one with you if you stand in it and let the
rushing waves steal enough sand from under you until you become
a human stilt.
My prayers were answered, the spill has never reached the
Carolina coast, but I don’t have any illusions about the global
affect of this man-made disaster. Scientists had recently
discover large dead-zones in the Golf, where the toxins have
accumulated from the flood of black death that was gushing out
from the hole. The whole that we have punched into the Earth in
a location that is not in our total control.
I remember the frustration, anger, disappointment I had felt
when I watched the public display of poisoning our ocean by BP.
After three weeks I had sent an e-mail to the white house
recommending to remove BP from the decision making process and
ask for international help in addition to putting the navy in
charge. I have seen engineers and scientists providing solutions
that fell on deaf ears. My solution was to guide a gigantic
steel pipe, the size of a family home and the walls thick enough
to withstand the pressure over the oil well and fill it up with
large steel baring balls and rocks. I’m sure there were more
sophisticated solutions, but it was painfully frustrating to
wait for other people to solve this disaster that was affecting
my ocean. It was affecting our ocean.
I teach my kids to be resilient, creative, and never give up. I
believe that if there is a problem or challenge you can always
find a solution or improvement.
Today, I see problems and solutions everywhere. I focus on
solutions, instead of gloom and doom, but I don’t close my eyes
and cover my ears when I discover the problems.
I also believe that an eight year old may have a solution to a
problem that we adults just cannot fathom. That’s why I’m asking
everyone for a solution that fits on a sticky note. It is
fabulously titled, my sticky note campaign.
Simply write your best idea to clean up our environment on a
sticky note and mail it to me.
I will post it on this large size painting, until it is all
covered with solutions.
I will select the best ones and take practical steps to make
sure that they become reality.
Please send me a sticky note with your picture and a permission
stating that I can post your picture and your sticky note on my
site and in other publications.
Thank you for your help keeping our oceans, rivers, air, and
food cleaner. I am in the process of updating this website and make it mobile friendly.
Attila Farkas
http://attilazone.blogspot.ca/
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E-mail: attila@enviroartist.com