We set the path now for everything from the fate of vast wilderness acres to the microscopic stem cell. Indeed even the wild now depends on civilization for its survival. The young bald eagle that soared over the cove this summer doesn't know that its survival was threatened and saved by our interest. The embryonic stem cell that became a blood-making cell under the auspices of biologists at the University of Wisconsin has no consciousness to wonder why. But Pollan is right.
Humans now live uneasily, sometimes unwillingly, with the knowledge of our own role.
We are as in control as the traffic signals that I will return to. I will carry memories with me down the turnpike to the city. An old friend with half a century of politics behind him had never seen asparagus growing. Nature doesn't come naturally. Soon the boat will leave, so I desert my post, collect the half-ripe tomatoes I cannot bear to leave behind and stash a handful of yellow periwinkle shells in my pocket where I can use them as winter worrybeads.