Feature Article February 6, 2002
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Maizie and EvolutionAt the end of January the grandchildren and I went down to the dock to call Maizie, The Mazinaw Monster, from the depths of the lake. They wanted to thank her for the gifts she had left in a pair of old rubber boots under the long standing Christmas tree. The complete lack of ice in the upper lake mystified them as they had planned to do some skating during their delayed Christmas visit.
"Grampa, where's the ice?"
"No ice yet this year Maggie, usually it freezes right after New Year's Day."
"If it doesn't freeze will Maizie miss her sleep under it and be crankier than usual this summer? " she pondered.
The newly exposed stones along the shoreline that needed to be thrown into the water distracted them before I could answer and I mused as they splashed their cares away.
Maggie's concern about her mythical monster's temper disturbed her but I am more disturbed about the Mazinaw. What will it be like when she and Willie stand here 70 years hence trying to explain the deteriorated shoreline to their grandchildren: a once pristine shoreline that has become weedier during my 30 years of hiking around it. Each passing year new underwater growth appears where no growth existed before.
What are we leaving for our grandchildren? How can we justify the deterioration of environment, the warming of atmosphere, the pollution of water and the still unknown results from gambling with genetically altered foods and animals?
Our preoccupation with materialism is exhausting endowments we inherited from our grandparents. Will our blind pursuit for additional and often hollow pleasures completely destroy the resources that bountiful Mother Nature left us? Despite our supposed reasoning ability we are little better than the most selfish and quarrelsome of animals as they hoard for their personal use. Basic animal instinct encourages the weaker and the sick to fall by the wayside so the strongest of their species can survive. Is this the route we should take to reduce human pressures on the earth? But that is foreign to our preached humanitarian lesson, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!"
" Come along kids, you are wet enough in this cold, we had better get changed," I called as they had waded over their boot tops competing to see who could throw the farthest.
" But we didn't see Maizie," complained Maggie as she reluctantly came to dry land, "I want to thank her."
A couple of loud "Thanks Maizie," reverberating off Bon Echo Rock seemed to satisfy their need and without a worry beyond soaked feet they struggled up the bank to their next adventure. With a sorrowful backward glance I followed them, still disturbed about what we are leaving for our presently carefree grandchildren.
