Burning Leaves

Ah! Autumn! Cool evenings, football games, hayrides, apple cider, pumpkins and the smell of burning leaves. We are approaching that unique time of year when many of my suburban neighbors gather in the residue of the growing season (primarily leaves) and put them to the torch. Burning leaves is a time honored tradition in America. Burning has been one of our primary solutions to ridding ourselves of unwanted "stuff" since the landing of the first settlers in the salt marsh on the James River in 1607.

Burning leaves is a simple solution to a temporary problem, but it pleases us to be able to rid our yards and ourselves of this annual organic rubbish dropped by the few trees we allow to remain after our conquest of the land. The fire and smoke didn't seem to harm anyone, and its ritualistic quality became a marker for the progression of the seasons. But today things have changed and the smoke from leaves torched by thousands of my suburban neighbors, results in a thick cloud of smoke hanging in the air over much of the city. If you happen to be allergic to trees whose leaves are burned, as my two sons and I are painfully aware, the result is misery and discomfort in the form of headaches and sinus congestion and infections often leading to a hacking cough, asthma and bronchitis.

Albert Einstein is reported to have said, upon hearing of the detonation of the first atomic bomb, "Everything about war has changed, except the way man thinks about war."(1) In this one short sentence he simultaneously exposed our species strength and our weakness-The human mind generates patterns of thinking and identifying problems in response to our experience, making us creatures of habit.