Like Dandelion
haiku and brief tribute to my teacher Lucille Bertuccio
Teachers Appreciation Week and Mother’s Day 2020
DANDELIONS LEARN
TO BLOOM CLOSER TO THEIR ROOTS
TORN RUBBERBAND MAN
LIKE DANDELION: In the footsteps of Lucille Bertuccio—mother, naturalist, teacher
We are all teachers. We are all students. Lucille Bertuccio (1936-2016) knew this as she lived it. As one of my undergraduate professors, Lucille grounded me and helped to catalyze a change in my worldview at a critical time. I am forever grateful.
“Lucille Bertuccio’s observations of nature began from the time she was a young girl living in New York watching dandelions grow between the cracks in the sidewalk.”
Stealth in aim, Lucille first attracted the curious. Within the school of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, her course title: Ecohumanism. What’s that? Students who really wanted to know signed up, showed up, and finished the course. She assigned books designed to bend the mind toward a living path. And many of Lucille’s formal students became to remain her friends whether or not we left town. There are several reasons why...
Lucille mostly taught by example. So, we believed in her. She was also a fierce advocate of the small and delicate, if strong and enduring—traits that formal students wear by nature and nurture. So, we trusted her with our lives. She knew how to brew dandelion wine*. So, we admired her. And, Lucille shared not only her knowledge and skills, but opened her home, including her worm box. So, we felt—at least the potential to be—equal with her.
She was good medicine. Like dandelion, a flower most familiar with adversity, Lucille would not be deterred. When mowed down by judgment whether on personal or professional matters, she persisted to thrive where and as she could. Lucille died while in her daughter’s care February 2016. She was 80 years old.
Links
Lucille Bertuccio co-founded The Center for Sustainable Living and the Grow Organic Educator Series in Bloomington, Indiana.
“Given the pervasiveness of lawns coupled with habitat loss, our findings provide immediate solutions for individual households to contribute to urban conservation.”—To mow or to mow less: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity—ScienceDirect
Disaster interrupted: How you can help save the insects: 1. Mow your lawn infrequently or get rid of it—Mongabay News
*Alcohol is poison and recommended in tiny doses if at all—The Maharishi Ayurveda View of Alcohol
The Spinners—Rubberband Man
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