Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
—Chief Seattle
As I sit in the sun I’m delighted to hear the flutter of wings. My eyes revel as the birds feast. Cautious, fearful, yet determined to feed, no matter how close I come; as long as I remain still they succumb to bravery and peck away at the bird feeder. There are maybe a hundred or more waiting their turn at the feeder. Fluttering wings and chirping surrounds me. If I move too quickly, they flicker away. What is this invisible line of connection? Drawing them near; then frighten them away with my movement. I’m a giant in their world. Their language and pecking order are a mystery. Yet, they too are an intricate thread within the web of life.
“Is there something wrong? I’m somewhat concerned. One of the village men came and said there were stirrings of trouble in the forest. What kind of trouble? The village man said, “creatures are being killed and dying in the forest. Insects, animals and birds are struggling for life.”
- Clive Cussler, Blue Gold, a novel from the NUMA files.
Fiction? We all recognize the ‘trouble’: It’s all around us; fear is nipping at everyones’ heals.The novel brings a glimpse of one mans movement that caused the death of a pod of whales and more. He places an enormous blister on humanities face. Deliberately bringing imbalance to life and the planet.
How do we begin changing lifestyles and habits? We do it with each step we take. Until each of us acknowledges what Chief Seattle so eloquently said; ‘all things connect’, the imbalance we’ve created is killing us. Is it our lack of education? Or is it acceptance and greed that provokes humanity to take such stupid steps? Our rampant and irresponsible development and consumption reveals our societal immaturity on an enormous scale!
Think ‘non-consumption’. Opps, that won’t work…the basis of our economy would go bust! Oh, our economy is already a bust. For me, shifting from ‘want’ to ‘need’ is the basic foundation for curing most everything that is wrong in our world. We need to tilt the scales back to when we were a ‘need based’ society. And now is the time to do it. We have become gluttonous! Starving for purpose! I heard a woman at the market say, “I want an SUV! I’m having a mid-life crisis!” Well, that pretty much sums it up. We chase after ‘things’ to fulfill ourselves. Never giving a thought about how these kinds of actions affects the world around us. Even when we are aware, we seldom go beyond the name of a thing; at the depth beneath a name.
Just as you, I yearn to have a voice. Be heard. Express what I know. Converse with friends and those I don’t know. Be understood and respected. Breath and see clearly. I have a dream: Stewardship is practiced by everyone. Each of us is a good and loving person. Each of us can take the time to ‘go beyond a name’ and become familiar with the ‘essence of life’, which is ‘biology‘; a branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital processes. We will see a beautiful living thing and know how it is connected to ourselves and its environment. We will no longer lose all that we hold dear. There is a natural balance and every community thrives.
Happy non-gluttonous trails!
