YOU ARE NOT HELPLESS!
Learning from the “Crusoe of Lonesome Lake” who saved the Trumpeter Swans from Extinction
I feel helpless. Overwhelmingly so. Recently quite often. Why is that? Today my internet is down. Yesterday I was unsuccessful in helping a student understand basic algebra. The day before I went teach in a community centre with a chalkboard 1.5 x 2.5 feet in size with pieces of chalk around the size of my pinkie. My friend is unable to start building his house, after selling his previous one, because the price of concrete almost tripled the cost of his foundation and he just can’t afford that. A family member in rehab watched a guy in his rehab program leave, although he was clearly not ready, and was told that a few days later he was beaten to death by a drug gang he was involved with. I read the CDN federal government announcement that they planned on bringing even more immigrants and developing the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario while simultaneously claiming that their efforts are bringing Canada closer to being carbon neutral by 2050.** Helpless. Nothing I, or my friend or my family member seems able to improve our situations. Are you feeling helpless too? It seems to me that our society is teaching us something called “learned helplessness”. Nasty stuff – it makes it easier to control people. To turn you into a mere consumer. A sheep. And yet, a part of me inside says: “No, I am NOT helpless!”
But another, louder, voice says to me: “Yes, you are helpless because there is nothing you can do to improve the mess we are in any way that really matters. All you can do is a token effort.” Why do I listen to this voice? Maybe it’s just old age? Maybe it’s having too much time on my hand? Maybe it’s reading to much news about avoidable disasters? I don’t know why I feel overwhelmingly helpless but it’s not a feeling I want. To deal with this feeling I think we should first investigate its cause. For me it is primarily the environmental and social collapse I see unfolding before me. Most headlines are bad news – I get that – but these days it feels like the bad news is making people avoid dealing with the issues rather than see them as challenges to be overcome. It seems to me that it is Halloween and humanity is enjoying binge watching of Halloween movie and after Halloween movie and finding the terror and death cathartic and enjoyable. Not me. I cannot handle fear and terror – in my imagination it is real. Far too real to “enjoy”. It’s not only knowing and seeing our natural world destroyed by our short sightedness that makes me almost physically sick – it is the destruction of our social fabric, the glue of relationships and trust and belonging that people need to keep sane and live a good life. Last week I found out it would take another 5 years [after waiting for 2 years] before there could be a spot in a long term care facility for my mum – she is 92 and is only doing well because she lives with us – I am helpless. While driving I heard a story about a young man who injured his brain while coming back from a pre-wedding bachelor party and needs to live in a long term care facility – but as he is not old the wait is 10-15 years and he is unable to care for himself: he is alone. Another story told about a single Mum who had 10 children and was murdered: she was alone. Both Britain and Japan have Ministers of Loneliness. Even governments are helpless. There have been over 300 mass shootings so far in 2022 in USA: more lonely & most probably traumatized people causing pain and trauma in others. Today’s headlines: The Democrats will probably lose the midterms, because our society is falling apart. Helpless to stop the social breakdown. The flu, RSV and other viruses are surging in young kids are suffering from the unintended consequences of our Covid policies which focused on protecting the old while forgetting about the young and they are suffering for it – both in terms of lost education, increased mental health challenges [eg. Anorexia rates have more than doubled since Covid] and overall health. Helpless to even keep the children healthy. And yet, life is still so amazing. How can that be?
Ralph Edwards, who moved to Lonesome Lake in 1912
Lucky for me, and you, that I drove to Merrickville yesterday to kick me out of the doom and gloom mood that feeling helpless creates. There I picked up a book at the small used bookstore there, recommended by the owner. It’s called ‘The Crusoe of Lonesome Lake’. I started reading it on my back porch today – with the beautiful sunshine upon me – and suddenly my mood changed. The voice that told me that I was helpless vanished and was replaced by the other, that inner voice, that had, against all reason, been trying to remind me that all of us and all our actions, no matter how seemingly trivial, matter. We are all butterflies flapping in the breeze and while fragile also can change the world. This is how Ralph Edwards, after choosing to live on remote Lonesome lake in northwestern BC, did his bit to NOT be helpless and make the world a slightly better place:
In the early 1930s & 40s, trumpeter swans almost went extinct because of excessive hunting in the US and Canada. At one point it was estimated that only about 100 trumpeter swans remained in the world, and about 1/3 of them wintered at Lonesome Lake, feeding in the ice-free areas of the rivers. Thanks to Ralph’s effort the population grew consistently over the years and by the 1960’s it had reached 600. Due to the legendary and internationally renowned efforts of Ralph Edwards these majestic large white birds were saved from extinction. In 1925, the Canadian government enlisted Edwards’ help to feed the local population of trumpeter swans during winter. Decades of over-hunting meant this species were facing extinction. Ralph and his family worked tirelessly to ensure that supplementary feed reached the birds and, in the years following, the population grew steadily. During Elizabeth II’s 1951 tour of Canada, she was promised a Dominion gift of trumpeter swans. The only swans tame enough to capture were those at Lonesome Lake as they had been fed for decades. In 1952, with the help of Ralph and his daughter Trudy, five were captured and flown to England. As Edwards’ farm and family prospered, word of his accomplishments spread, and in 1957 his biography, Crusoe of Lonesome Lake was published.
What does this all tell me? Yes, hurt people hurt people: but passionate & caring people heal people – and our natural world. But more than that, the Law of Karma seems to be at play at a global scale. Obviously if we destroy Nature, so it destroys us. Sadly, the flip side is often forgotten: if we heal Nature it will heal us in return. And what can you & I realistically do about this lemming like suicidal race to the cliff? Nothing, if you look at the big picture – almost nothing. But I have noticed that the “big shots’ often do try to improve big things – and usually fail. Perhaps trying to do the big & “important” acts is the wrong approach. Maybe we should heed the lessons of the butterfly effect and see ourselves more as butterflies. We can be like Ralph Edwards. We can flap our wings and create a storm on the other side of world. Maybe we can even save a species like he did. How do we do that today?
We can keep our sanity. We can be passionate and as focused as Ralph Edwards. His desire for wilderness and independence led him, indirectly, to save the Trumpeter swans. If we stay as full of life and desire as him I am sure that each of us can do one little thing that turns out to really matter. Along the way, to keep our spirits up, we can keep joy and beauty alive in our lives and then share it with others. We can become friends with our neighbours and then help each other. We can find a lonely person and visit them. We can financially support struggling young people we know. We can be less busy. We can sit in the warm sun and know that life is GOOD. We can’t avoid reality – but we can choose which realities to make part of our lives. We can face our challenges instead of pretending that life as we know it can continue as it is. We can grow and change and learn. And when we are at the right place and the right time we can act on a project like saving the Trumpeter swans. If we are positive we will seize the opportunity and act – because we know that we are not helpless. Along the way we can read more good news to strengthen that inner voice that tells us that we are not helpless. Here are the thoughts of Ralph Edwards to help that inner voice become stronger as you go into the world knowing that you are not helpless:
He would prove that the seemingly impossible could be done. To him the explanation for his decision to live in the remote wilds of BC was simple – as simple as the creed in which he had been reared: that honesty and the Golden Rule are basic essentials in any decent living, and that everlastingly persistent hard work must eventually reap its just reward. Of course, it all worked because of his LOVE for the wild mountains, for farming and for living by a lake full of wild fish and ducks and the haunting calls of the loons.
Here is some such good news to help you realize that you are no helpless:
Being around birds boosts our mental well being even 8 hours after hearing them
So, still feeling helpless? Do something about it –listen to the birds! There is only one small problem: they’ve all flown south. It’s OK though, there are lots of recording on the internet to listen to and here is my favourite from Australia. It is a fundraiser to save birds there and was a global best seller in 2021 back called “Songs of Disappearance”. As I bought the album then I am going to listen to it right now. Good bye dear friend and Carpe diem as I allow the birds to make me KNOW that I am not helpless after all.
Book: Crusoe of Lonesome Lake by Leland Stowe, Random House, 1957
Saving the trumpeter swans https://bcparksfoundation.ca/projects/parks-bank/lonesome-lake/#:~:text=TRUMPETER%20SWANS,-Due%20to%20its&text=Thanks%20to%20Ralph’s%20effort%20the,birds%20were%20saved%20from%20extinction.
A video about the family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuRJCeiaIw
** CDNs’ GHG emissions are among the world’s highest and so every person coming here means much higher emissions for the world, on top of that we seem to have lost the capacity to build enough houses and provide enough hospital/nurses/doctors for even our existing population so at this point in history bringing in a lot more people risks accelerating our have/have not social divide which has been shown to be a major causes of breakdown of a civil society.
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