How we are conditioned slowly and surely

Yesterday I found two slugs in my bunch of watercress that was bought from a local farmer. I hate slugs! With all the warms and insects, I hate slugs (snails) the must. Come to think of it, I don’t like any of the earthly friends – can’t stand the caterpillars or earthworms, either. I love gardening, though. But not a good gardener since I can’t work around my garden friends.

I didn’t know what to do with my watercress. “Should I throw away the whole thing, slugs and the vegetable, or just the slugs”, I debated in my mind. I thought hard. I recalled some of the books I had read about pesticides, animals and the environment. Pesticides and animals do not go together; I determined. I reasoned: if these slugs are still attached to the watercress, this is a good news! This means the watercress is not sprayed and there are no poisonous chemicals. I knew one thing that what is good for pest (slugs) is good for us (human) also, so I felt happy for a brief moment. But my positive thoughts didn’t last very long.

With my dubious mind I washed the watercress three times in a sinkful of water and cooked the vegetable little longer than I usually do. While cooking the watercress, I kept repeating in my mind, “this is pure, without the pesticides vegetable” “It’ll do good for me…” But it didn’t! I kept thinking about the slugs all day long and I felt sick to my stomach.

Living in the supermarket-grown vegetables for years, I had forgotten how the ‘real’ vegetables grow in a farm without a pesticide.

These slugs reminded me of the groundhogs we’ve in Canada.  Beyond our rock garden there live at least half a dozen groundhogs, I think. They often invade my garden in the spring and summer and I’ve been chasing them ever since I established the garden. Sometimes I stone them. Other times I throw whatever I find close by. I’ve targeted them with my shoe, placemate, spoons, quarterplates – anything when I saw them from inside of the house. Still they visit my garden just the same! They’re not afraid of me anymore. In my desperate attempt, I asked one of my neighbours to buy me a slang-shot and/or a trap. But my family threatened me that they would report my case to a police. “Mom, you invaded their habitat. It’s not their fault that they eat your garden (my favorite plants); your garden is where their home used to be”.

One of them died in our driveway, one of our daughters drove right over it one summer. The poor thing must have been resting under our daughter’s car; she didn’t know. She was so sorry when she found it out!

We’re conditioned to do certain things and behave certain ways without our knowledge. We feel ‘normal’ to do the things we’re accustomed to. We forget that normalcy is the condition we bring to ourselves, slowly and surely.

This piece of blog is the tribute to my favorite environmentalist, Rachel Carson. For those of you who do not know about Rachel and want to know about her contributions, here is a link to follow:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/how-silent-spring-ignited-the-environmental-movement.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0