I often (ok, much of the time) wonder about this fish bowl of life which we inhabit. Who and/or what is right (or less bad), and does any of it even matter, etc? Can everything be both "perfect as it is" and "really screwed up," at the same time?
I look at the left, and I look at the right, and none of them make any sense or speak for me. They mostly seem to be in it for the money, the power, and protecting corporate interests above a livable future.
I look at the Arabs, Jews, Americans, Chinese and all other nations of righteous folks shooting each other in the name of their gods, or holy profits. We all seem to have the ultimate holy god. Too bad so few of us actually live anything near what we profess, or what the leaders of the religions we profess to follow actually suggested or taught. Things like love your neighbor, feed the hungry, or forgive, oh well, nevermind.
I look at the "media" (which is mostly corporate owned/controlled, biased, and self serving) and see little of real substance being reported. Nothing to see here folks, moo along. Moo along. It seems that celebrity is more important than say, Fukushima, unjust and endless wars, or policy which neither builds security, community, or a sustainable future.
What about education anyway? We always have plenty of money for war. I guess that is what we really value as a people.
It really is a shame that some people are poor, or uneducated, or caught in a war zone, and it is somebody else's problem. Moo along.....
And mostly, I look at nature; the environments which give and sustain our lives, those of our future, and all other living beings on this ever shrinking and limited whirtling globe of "resources."
We have reduced all of nature, and all life, including humans, to "resources." Resources to be owned, transformed, and profited from, with little or no thought to whatever may already be living in or on these "resources." Everything seems to be owned, parceled, fenced, and guarded.
I wonder how long (or where on earth) one could go free, before being arrested for trespassing, sleeping or hunting without a permit, etc. Does the earth really belong to us? Is most "ownership" mainly a pyramid scheme benefiting those who got there first, especially ownership of land, and all the life contained therein?
Does it matter that we are destroying nature and it's working systems of life, and trading once-living environs for toxic landfills and cheap disposable products? Does it matter that there are mass extinctions of species happening as we destroy living environments for more stuff?
Is nature perhaps more valuable intact as a functioning and whole system, than traded and transformed for dollars? Read this line a few times and let it sink in. Perhaps picture your favorite place in nature, as a lifeless landfill, or paved with a Target/McDonald's mall sprawling for car filled miles.
Does it matter that anywhere you go, all you find are the same corporate logos, selling the same (for the most part) plastic, disposable, designed to break so we buy more, and non-repairable stuff. Do we really need any of it?
Why is there no sane policy, or regulations or governance which protect or serve, "WE, The People, even just a simple policy of building products to last, making them repairable, etc, oh but that is unrealistic, and too much trouble, or unfair to our upstanding corporate citizens.
Every neighborhood seems to be filled with boxes and piles of discarded or no longer living or life-supporting "resources," with "free" signs on them. Material glut everywhere, but somehow, something seems to be lacking?
We are stewards on and of this planet, and would do well to share it with all and everything, and not put a $ value, or exploit everything, for our ends.
Perhaps we can all have Hummers and air-conditioned homes and large buildings and drive or fly all over, to our ever-important worldwide events and distractions, and perhaps we are being just a tad greedy in trying to order nature to our wills, rather than trying to fit within it's rules and laws?
I wonder how many nukes and power stations we could do without, were we to simply do without air conditioning? Hmm, I can hear all of everybody's reasons why not, and for the most part, we are spoiled and opportunistic "takers" and grade A#1 consumers. Ignorance may be bliss, and nature can not continue to be mined, raped, clear cut, etc. There just is not much left.
There is a fine line between living a satisfied life and not looking at or being disturbed by what is happening in the world around us. We rarely look at what is being created/caused by our actions or consuming habits or take a hard look at our beliefs or realities.
There is much more happening here than our little human realm. Do we really want and need more nukes, more landfills, more parking lots, and more lifeless environments to supply our bottomless desires for more?
When did conservation become so uncool and out of style or fashion.
There is a word, Tikkun, which means roughly, repairing the world. Look it up on in a search.
Tikkun. I like that word.
How do we make create it?
What are we giving back?
It is time for Tikkun
