Down in Lower Alabama, down in this corner of the Magna Mater, lies BLAKELEY STATE PARK in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, the second largest delta in the United States.

E. O. Wilson, our own Ed Wilson, who once lived in Mobile, Alabama rode his bike into the Delta as a boy, became fascinated with ants. and later called the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, a  “meeting place for science and the humanities, for research and art, a sanctuary to explore and dream, a venue to learn and teach, a playground,  and a temple of immeasurable value.”           

Let us gather to celebrate this Delta-land that is part of our Being-in-the-World.

Take note. We are one: ant, alligator; bee, beaver, butterfly, blackbird, bobcat, bear; cricket, coyote, crow; duck, deer; eagle, egret; falcon, fox, frog; grosbeak, gull; grasshopper, grouper; heron, hawk,  hog;  ibis; jay; kite; lizard; moccasin, mosquito, muskrat; nutria, osprey, otter, owl; pelican, possum;  quail; rabbit, raccoon; squirrel, spider, tanager, turkey, turtle, urchin, viper (there are many in the Delta; stay away from the coral, the     cottonmouth, and the rattle ) warbler, X equals 126 fish, 46 mammals, 69 reptiles, and  30 amphibians, yellowlegs, zarotypus.

All beings great and small are connections that bind us. Let us prevent the anguish of the earth, of our Mobile-Tensaw Delta – and council preservation, each to each. In the words of Emily Dickinson, let us know “the world is just a little place, just the red in the sky, before the sun rises, so let us keep fast hold of hands, that when the birds begin, none of us be missing.” (From a letter, dated 1860.)