ing a baby. I wanted to tell him that be used to power our home? Could cars have to meet environmental those people, the swaying branches, we store solar power gathered dur- standards but cows don’t. the leaves beneath our feet, even the ing August and September for use We walked around recycling bins raindrops, are reality. They are our throughout the winter? set out faithfully on the curb. Here past, our present and our future. After a break in our dog-walking was proof for my son that others They are the reason it matters what routine (a visit to his grandparents’ (besides his mother) felt there was we do on this precious turf called house, a bout of the flu), Duncan hope for the future. earth. But he wasn’t ready. would relapse and resist. I would As the days lengthened, birdsong

The third night I looked for open- appeal to his manhood, his dog own- filled the air. Duncan and I scared off ings. The sound of geese honking ership, his interest in playing video a cat stalking a robin and agreed that above, making their way south, re- games at our house ever again during cat owners should keep them inside, minded Duncan of The Once and his lifetime, to get him out the door. to halt the extinction of songbirds. Future King. He’d just finished read- When he was younger, he would “Dude, I know!” he said. “We could ing it in school. “Do you remember,” spill his guts on my lap. Now he just grab every cat we see and put a I asked, “how the goose told Arthur, needed movement to stir language bell on it!”

‘There are no boundaries among the and thought, supporting the com- I might be creating a zealot. Dun-geese’?” No walls, no borders, just mon teenage assertion that “I study can sees pesticides as impossible one sky above. better when I’m listening to music, (the runoff). He’s begun question-

“Audible gas led to a discussion

of cow emissions, vehicular emissions,

and why do cars have to meet environmental standards but cows don’t.”

A week later we watched clouds ing my right to drink Diet Coke (the whipping by and speculated on where plastic, the NutraSweet). And he’s they had begun their journey. Had joined the cyclists lining the slick they arrived from Canada, crossed streets, making me simultaneously the Pacific, were they once over proudandanxious.

Asia? Did Duncan realize that those Not that he’s an ecological angel. clouds were filled with the same rain He recently rationalized his desire to that had been falling on earth for indulgeinthelatestmassively multimillions of years? The rain would player online game by assuring me, become rivers, oceans, then ascend “I’d be meeting characters from all once more to the sky. over the world!” Adding, because he One night on our walk, the gleam- couldn’t help razzing me (and showing iridescence of gasoline on the ing me he knew what I had been street caught his eye. He said, “I up to all along), “Typing locally, kill-know it would be tough for a while, ing globally!” but in some ways I wish the oil sup- I told him we would have to talk ply would dry up soon. We’d have to watching TV and tapping my foot.” about it. I’m sure the dog will be use alternative fuels now, before it’s Moving, he made logical leaps willing to go along. too late.” between theory and practice. Audible

^{He began to problem solve. Could gas led to a discussion of cow emis-} BEREN DEMOTIER IS AN ESSAYIST WHO LIVES IN the wind cutting through our coats sions, vehicular emissions, and why PORTLAND, OREGON.