A
Trainable Species
“I would
say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us
and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one.
The farthest star and the mud at our feet are family; and there is no
decency or sense of honoring one thing, or a few things, and then
closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and
ourselves—we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a
sustainable world together. We are each other's destiny.”
Mary
Oliver (Upstream: Selected Essays)
We humans are a trainable
species. We learn from experience, but we're lazy and self-serving. I
could blame America solely for the pickle we are in, but I have
visited a few developing nations, and know that we are not. The truth
is, we could all do so much better by the earth. We are not, for the
most part, intentionally destructive, even though people are still
killing whales for meat, elephants for their tusks, and shooting
other endangered animals for trophy; those people are in the extreme
minority. What we are is indifferent until it affects us. We do not
want to sacrifice in order to preserve nature.
I stand in the mud with
Mary Oliver. We are indifferent at our own risk. We credit ourselves
with having the big brain, and sitting at the top of the food chain,
but I am not so sure about that. Remember that commercial for V-8—the
slap on the forehead, and “I could've had a V-8!” Well, that's
what we need—a wake-up slap. Our eyes need to open, along with our
hearts, to the truth of our dependency on this good earth to sustain
us. We are definitely in the food chain, but the likes of Irma and
Harvey may teach us that we are only one of many.
Our destiny is indelibly
linked to the survival of the earth on which we stand. Let us look at
the purple violet and the golden temple with the same eyes. Let us
revere the hummingbird as much as we do the cathedral. Let the bobcat
and the red fox be loved as much as our household pets. The top of
the food chain must respect all the links in that chain. Wake up and
give thanks today for all that you are and all that you have.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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