By "us" I mean all who fall under Mother Nature and Father Time's creation: the birds and the bees, the trees who speak through their roots, and the precious minerals buried within mountains and rock. Our collective natural history surrounds us, is within us, and determines our true calling in life as long as we are undistracted.
Let's take it waaay back.. to a time (1500's) when worldwide trade and industrialization somehow managed to propel a handful of European countries to travel the world not just for trade, but to 'colonize'. Basically, these fair-skinned, "well-mannered" men decided, or were instructed by their government, to travel faraway places and force cultures and civilizations to assimilate and live under British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch rule. Bad, so bad, very bad...ugh it couldn't have been any worse to be honest.
Fast forward to -literally- present day, and you'll find (painfully) plenty of new examples of colonization where whole groups of people think they are entitled to land that has been occupied by indigenous people for millennium. Not to mention the lasting effects of a mind-set like "What's mine is not yours" or "What's yours is now mine" so on and so forth. What do indigenous people know that their colonizers don't? How to take care of their fellow beings and surrounding living history.
Enter chat: Invasive Plants
Noooo, it is truly so difficult not to become irate while talking about the interconnectedness of colonialization and the destruction of natural areas via invasive plants. I see them every. Day. Everywhere, all around me, even when I'm out "enjoying nature". What I'm really enjoying is the hard labor of trail maintenance and conservation volunteers and workers to tackle the invasives and replace them with native plants, only to be outnumbered by the sheer aggression of cynical English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, laurel and holly berry (yes, the one we all love for Christmas-time).
Speaking of time, I think it's time to let go. I feel privileged enough to have been raised by a mom who pointed these devilish plants out; who spoke of native people with a subtle cry of joyful heartbreak. A mom who yelled, "Oh, weapons of mass destruction, what a load of hooey!" I was 5 years-old learning to question my governments leaders.
I have learned over the years not to get angry at those who don't know any better. How should I feel about those who know better and don't do better? Why is purple loosestrife and nandina in American garden centers? Why did that little bitch on West Seattle Gardeners Exchange Facebook Group respond to multiple cautionary comments on the highly invasive weed he wanted from someone else's yard "I agree. I'd love to see this all over a hillside. It's a quite lovely weed."
The cold, hard truth is people love invasive plants but, they gotta let that shit go. It's time to let go. I know better, I do better. I tell myself I've had enough sugar for the day, I'm going to get a headache... I grab two more pieces of fudge (it's Chrsitmas!!). This is a totally normal human experience.
But with invasive plants? We know better, we do better. Period.
Gosh, I just have so much more to say...because looking up that screenshot of the FB Group got me thinking... what a perfect example of a colonial way of living. The weed in question was not a native super-seeder, it was a horrible, terrible invasive plant, dangerous to natural structures (you ever heard of a mudslide??) and predatory towards native habitat. I could argue the invasive plants behave just like the people who brought them here, sucking up the natural resources, suffocating indigenous plants, and virtually destroying a whole landscape for the sake of success.