The Other Eden

There was a piece over at Al.Com.....entitled: Alabama the Beautiful (by Magic City Writer) that caught my interest this morning.

Few people come to grasp this.  Bama actually ranks fifth in the nation....in species diversity.

Bama has over sixty types of terrestrial ecosystems.  It provides twenty-five forests to the nation.  It offers eleven wetlands.  It even offers up seven glades/prairies.  All of this, and over 75,000 miles of rivers, streams, and creeks.

Hunters would rattle off at least a hundred animals within the state that you could spend a Saturday afternoon looking for.

Fisherman would shed a tear as they described the dozens of fish that they've caught over the past thirty years.

A pine tree enthusiast would chatter for an hour over the various pines that you could see out in Limestone county.

A Bankhead Forest resident would need four hours to conclude his description of the local surroundings.

A Dolphin Island resident would drag out some digital notebook with fourteen thousand pictures of birds, fish, crabs, and weird creatures that they'd seen over their lifetime.

A farmer would sit and spend an entire afternoon at the local gas station noting the sixty-six different garden variety items that he's got growing this summer, and how proud he is over this year's successful pea crop.

On and on....even NASCAR freaks and NCAA football folks would pause and describe the abundance of diversity in nature within the borders of Bama.

Then, you'd come to some minister, who'd round this up in typical fashion.  Yes, it would be deserving of a Sunday sermon.....that Bama is in effect....the "other" Eden.  God blessed Bama....giving it more nature than a state really deserves.  God then directed animals to expand in abundance.  The end of the sermon?  We need to give thanks for such an Eden, and live our lives in appreciation.

Somewhere in the back of the church....some guy would be sitting there and pondering.  Eden ended up going off-track and spiraling out of control....once folks gave up their naive nature and got some bit of understanding of their surroundings.  It's best to just accept what you got, not brag too much, and hope heavily for a dynamic NCAA season.  In that case, we rank number one already, and don't need much discussion, or preaching.