I'd rather stop, think and contemplate a beautiful sunrise really, a powerful, yellow ball rising above the horizon by the shore. Or a sunset with a bloom of colors across the sky. But due to evolution's incredibly slow movement in the minds, hearts and souls of some of our fellow human beings who consider it acceptable to decimate natural systems, resources, animals, fish and humans to save a few dollars here and there on their bottom line, our collective survival is in actual jeopardy. Nature and Earth are simply seen as "a free ride for profit" for the few at the expense of everyone else.
Oh life on Earth will continue, she is way too fecund, fertile and clever to be subdued by her said-to-be most intelligent creation, but will it continue with that creation, Homo sapiens? Due to an interview I conducted recently with president of The State of The World Forum and of Wisdom University, Jim Garrison, there are some real question marks around this usually off-limits assumption.
As a species, we have toyed with the ecosystem to the extent of jeopardizing our own food supply and with our economics to the extent that we have jeopardized our survival due to the insane disparity between the haves and the have-nots.
Our food supply has gone from nature-given to man-made with severe consequences to health: think GMO's, Bovine Growth Hormone, soil depletion, water and air pollution, to name but a few. With a broken political system that no longer represents less than 10% of its people, the corporate elite (yes, corporations, the Supreme Court ruled, are people!) who write or bend laws singularly for their own benefit, the question of our human survival becomes one about which we really do want to think, feel deeply and contemplate without further delay.
The irony is that life in itself, is so profoundly beautiful. Nature flourishes. In her magnificence, intelligence and humor, dolphins play, gorgeously colorful birds in the Rainforest sing and the high points of human culture which abound. Then there are the robber-barons, the conquerors, for whom power over and the acquisition of material wealth at any cost, and I mean any, cause imbalance in the rest of the exquisite balance of Nature, including human nature.
From the Native American point of view, the behaviors of these relatively few conquistadors, just as in the days of old, represent a deep illness, a terrible departure from the inner Mind-Body-Spirit balances required for walking on the Earth in a sane (from the Latin sanos, "healthy"), respectful, responsible and sacred way. As such, it is best for the human community to temporarily remove them into retreat to give them the compassion, love and assistance they likely need to bring them back into harmony with the elements, with the community and with themselves.
As part of that, a vision quest is usually part of Nature's cure, during which someone fasts for a few days on water alone and goes out into the forest to feel, reflect, see and contemplate their ways. One notes how one may have hurt others including abusing Mother Earth's incredible bounty for one's own self.
But historically, our society has not identified these human attitudes and behaviors conducted behind a corporate veil as a sickness but rather as "business-as-usual", or something about which to be proud. However, due to the extremeness of current conditions--environmental-ecological (Climate Change, massive species death, elemental pollution, earthquakes, tsunamis), economic collapse, permanent wars (longest wars in U.S. history), the healthcare debacle and what is nothing short of a corporate coup d'état of our government--mainstream is beginning to think and see the truth behind the veil that was there all the time, but most were blinded by corporate media and the belief that the U.S. Economy can do no wrong, that money is good no matter how it is made.
Interestingly, the wisdom of the indigenous elders and many of our own, about living in balance and in just, cooperative community, is coming home to roost.
We are at the first anniversary of the BP oil disaster and still the oil is being discovered and continues to devastate the sea life, the economy of the people there and their health. In short, it is, and continues to be a disaster.
And most lately, the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster that followed on the heels of the worst earthquake in recorded Japanese history and a subsequent tsunami leading to incalculable deaths and destruction, currently being dwarfed by the uncontrollable radioactivity being released with no good end in sight. It cannot be fully contained, as we now know, and most of us really suspected all along, "as supposed".
As if the nuclear issue across the world isn't enough, its race 'to the bottom' of human thinking is the practice of hydro-fracking. What isn't finished off by nuclear waste and radiation will certainly be by the injecting of highly toxic chemicals into the Earth which goes into the water supply. If we all start growing extra limbs or additional heads, we'll know why.
And even when contained more so, Mother Earth's small hiccup ends the containment. Who, my friends, is kidding who? Where the real power lies, in Mother Nature, and in our hearts, has become very clear.
On Earth Day, we celebrate the joys of being alive on Earth and we seriously contemplate what damage humans have done and perpetuate daily to the eco-system. Enough cannot be said about the importance of each of us individually entering this inner process, and emerging with our own new set, or a renewed set, of daily habits and practices which help to preserve and sustain instead of consume and destroy.
In light of the power of our hearts, this is where solutions lie after we behold and contemplate the terrible and grim diagnosis. The remedy is in our collective voice of speaking truth to our representatives in Congress, state and local levels, hold Town Meetings and build our own, local, sustainable, organic food-growing communities, in effect, start to withdraw and unplug from the large, undesirable, corporate and governmental bodies which don't represent us anyway.
We the People can begin to direct our own relationship to Nature, develop our own food sources and invest in them instead of relying on corporate agri-business. It's time to develop a sense of "Sacred Stewardship" (a chapter in my book to be released this summer), and indeed, self-reliance on community levels will likely be the key to our very survival.