* by Beren deMotier

The Winter Sky Above Us,
the Earth Below

An eco-mom uses neighborhood walks to convert her teenager
to caring about his community and the earth.

THE EXCUSE WAS that the dog Every day is about schoolwork, then I appealed to his manhood (“I’m needed walking. It was seemingly an every day will be about work, and nervous walking alone”) and handed afterthought when I asked my 14- then I’ll die,” I knew he needed a him the leash. The dog lunged up year-old son, Duncan, to accompany dose of the natural world, pronto. the sidewalk before he could argue. me on that brisk winter night. So as we walked I managed the Duncan was silent for blocks.

But it was my son who really 92-pound dog and let Duncan talk “We should put our lights up needed the walk. The blues had crept the entire time about the latest video soon,” he finally grumbled, noticing into his life with the shorter days of game obsessing the adolescent the twinkling lights swaying in the winter. He was sullen, moody and nation. The dog snuffled the wet branches of the neighborhood trees. separate. When he expressed a pref- grass, happy to be alive; our son Rain stung our faces, and patterned erence for virtual reality over the real might as well have been in a mall. picture windows lit up like tableaus: thing, explaining, “In the real world, The next night he pleaded rain, a family cleaning up after a meal, an nothing I do makes a difference. fatigue, the beginning of a cold. But elderly couple alone, a mother sooth-