Garden Reports and Rejoicing – December 11
Before reading this post you have to assure me that you’ll read to the end without clicking on any of the links. Promise? Because if you get diverted you’ll miss the point completely, and I think it’s important.
You know how they say that one year of a dog’s life is equal to seven years in a human’s life? Well I’m here to say that it’s the opposite when it comes to Internet Years. One year on the Internet is roughly equal to seven years of human life.
That means that whatever was posted two years ago is pretty old. Maybe even obsolete…it could even have been proven to be a lie.
What does this have to do with gardening? A great deal…even before we acknowledge the WholeLifeGardening philosophy that everything is connected to everything else. This came to my mind today when I saw a Facebook post about Senate Bill S510 with a link to a YouTube video on that topic. This video characterizes this bill as outlawing home gardening.
Remember, you promised! You aren’t going to click on that video link until you read the rest of this post, right? Why? First of all, because that video was put up on August 14th of 2010. One year and four months ago, or about nine people’s years. It’s old. Not to mention inaccurate.
That’s the first gardening connection. The second is broader. It has to do with thoughtful planting. In the instant information era we’re in it’s very easy to see something, react emotionally and then pass it on. Immediately. And, unfortunately, thoughtlessly.
It’s not that most people who do this are intentionally spreading misinformation. To the contrary, most of them are well meaning folks. But they are responding quickly, emotionally and without taking the time to research what they are passing around.
Information, be it hard facts, rumor, propaganda or lies can live forever online. But sometimes when we look closely we find that in Internet Years, it’s actually DOA.
It’s up to all of us to plant wisely.