An "Earth" To Delight In

It’s Earth Day. Republicans can ignore it as a made-up event with links to old hippies, or we can embrace the role of stewards for our shared home. I vote for the latter.

Several times in the past I have urged the GOP to put aside its aversion to a certain presidential loser/Nobel Prize winner and focus on the planet, not one personality. Frankly, I am tired of beating that drum.

True, the job is not done, and there is plenty of Al-Goraphobia out there. Congressman Bob Inglis put it well here:

All we can see is Al Gore, we cannot get past him. At the highest level, this environmental crisis is a spiritual problem. Can we overcome the hardness of spirit that prevents us from hearing those we disagree with?

He who angers you, controls you.

Even when Gore undoubtedly gets it right (as he did when he recently pumped his own money into adult stem cell research), some on the Right worry that if Gore likes it, perhaps they’ve got it wrong. For many, the quest to topple the Goracle will undoubtedly go on, no matter what else gets torn up in the process.

I, for one, am moving on. I won’t worry about Gore and I won’t worry about the people who still worry about Gore.

And may I suggest one good way for you to move on this Earth Day as well. Disney is releasing a film today sharing the same name as our third rock from the Sun. There’s no Al Gore. In fact, there are no people in the picture at all, except the booming voice of James Earl Jones. This movie isn’t perfect---like a kid in a candy store the producers try to cram a few too many tasty cinematic gumballs in their mouths---but this greatest hits collection from the Discovery Channel planet earth mini-series includes some stunning shots that indeed really should be seen on a big screen.

The result of over five arduous years filming across the globe, earth reminds us humans that the planet spins to rhythms and seasons all its own -- even if we ignore that fact in a 24/7, can’t see the stars at night, eat strawberries in December urban bubble. There are amazing time lapse sequences, spectacular aerial views of massive migrations, captivating slow motion chase scenes, and lots and lots of cute baby animals.

The script and editing seem to target an 8 to 12 year old audience, but parents will find plenty to enjoy too. Moms and dads might even find themselves, like me, remembering childhood experiences that set a love of nature in stone.

One of the perks of visiting my grandparents in rural East Texas was the chance to enter a Wild Kingdom. While Grandmommy and Granddaddy only got one station on their 19 inch black and white TV (we had all three channels in color back home), that station manager was smart enough to book the syndicated adventures of Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler. (FYI for you Beltway denizens, Fowler hails from the D.C. suburb of Falls Church and first experienced nature along Four Mile Run.)

After excitedly watching Jim wrestle crocodiles and chase baboons while Marlin waited safely in the truck, my sister, cousins and I would head off into the woods and sandy “desert” around the little country house searching out adventures of our own. Today’s children, suffering from what some researchers have labeled videophilia, likely now require more of a jolt to get them outside than Mutual of Omaha and a rooftop antenna can provide. Disney’s visual feast earth may just do the trick though.

So, today don’t think about that man. Instead, help your kids get to know their planet---either at the theater or, better yet, outside in some woods that you’ve almost forgotten were there. After all, we are only leasing this Earth from our children. Let’s return it to them in better shape than we found it, and let’s instill the love of nature that they will need when they then lease it from our grandkids.