TCS: Journeywork of the Stars

Posted on July 23, 2018 by

Good Morning!

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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings.
This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning
a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

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I believe a leaf of grass is no less
than the journeywork of the stars

– Walt Whitman

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J. David Bamberger was born into a farm family in Ohio in 1928, and grew up during the Great Depression. He says his mother shared her love of nature with him, which inspired his love and respect for the natural world. She also gave him a book, Pleasant Valley, written by Louis Bromfield, an early advocate for land conservation and habitat restoration.

After military service, Bamberger started selling vacuum cleaners, and kept on selling them after he got his college degree, working long hours, with few days off. He moved his family to Texas, and sold more vacuum cleaners there.

Some people though he was crazy. Within ten years, he had a half a million dollars in the bank.

Then Bill Church, another vacuum cleaner salesman, talked him into investing some of that money in franchising Church’s Fried Chicken. By the time Bamberger left Church’s, he had enough money for his dream project: find the worst, most over-grazed ranch in the Texas Hill Country, and restore it to the mixed grassland it once was.

As Bamberger puts it, “Here at Selah’s 5,500 acres we not only operate a working ranch with cattle, goats, hunting and hay making, but also we share the ranch with thousands of young people and adults through our many education programs and our outreach programs such as this blog on grasses . . . . But here’s where we are so very, very different. We do all of this with just five employees and some volunteers . . . You will find no gift shops, vending machines or cafés. It’s all preserved for nature, pure and simple and that’s worth saving.”  bambergerranch.org/…

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About wordcloud9

Nona Blyth Cloud has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for the past 50 years, spending much of that time commuting on the 405 Freeway. After Hollywood failed to appreciate her genius for acting and directing, she began a second career managing non-profits, from which she has retired. Nona has now resumed writing whatever comes into her head, instead of reports and pleas for funding. She lives in a small house overrun by books with her wonderful husband.
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2 Responses to TCS: Journeywork of the Stars

  1. Chuck Stanley says:
    July 23, 2018 at 6:07 am

    I recall a science fiction story from my (much) younger days. This sentient cosmic cloud of pure intelligence made contact with Earth scientists via the primitive computers and radio signals of the day. The scientists responded to the cloud’s insatiable desire for knowledge. They sent as many volumes of information to it as possible. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, all kinds of books, both scientific and fiction.

    As the cloud drifted away and the radio signals faded, the scientists asked the cloud of pure intelligence one last question. They wanted to know what made it possible for human life to evolve on Earth.

    The Cloud responded with a one-word reply, “Grass.”

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