This is the fifty-fourth issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
EARTH & US: Earth Day, 2007
O, humans! You and me of the ten thousand wars! When will we wake up from our fossil-fueled trance? As long as we abusing the fossil energy drug, which could be called "speed," we are moving too fast to see the devastation we have caused, moving too fast to get to know our neighbors, too fast to look at where our water comes from, where our food comes from, where our waste is going. We are dazed by energy-guzzling technology: cars, cell phones, computers, Internet, iPods, gameboys. We are crazed by our diet of sugary junk foods and genetically modified crops, toxified by electromagnetic frequencies and pharmaceuticals. We talk too fast to understand one another (or email instead of talk) so we generate interpersonal conflicts. When we’re angry, the first thing we need to do is SLOW DOWN. We don’t stop to reflect on our true needs, and how we might satisfy them without having to consume more. In our materialist culture, when we don’t feel well or happy or fulfilled we are far more likely to turn on the TV or spend money on some consumer fix than we are to go within, journal, meditate, play an instrument, or read a Rumi poem.
What will we do when all the cheap Chinese imported goods go away, when plastics go away, when food from over 100 miles away is no longer available? In other words, when the cheap oil runs out—which could happen in a very few years. What will we do if all the honeybees die off (the rates are alarming) and there is no pollination of crops except by hand?
So when you go to the Earth Day celebrations and hear about all the marvelous new technology that is good for the planet, stop and think for a moment. Even better than buying compact fluorescent bulbs is turning your lights off earlier in the evening and waking up with the sun. Even better than driving a Prius is riding your bicycle or walking. Even better than buying organically grown produce (trucked into town) is growing some vegetables of your own. The point here is: let us get back into the saner, slower rhythms of the Earth. Contact with nature is one of the most genuine sources of joy and healing.
We’ve gone so far out of balance that for some, family recreation means going to Wal-Mart or the mall. We’ve become so addicted to energy (and a lifestyle based on cheap energy) that we are willing to destroy the planet to get it, willing to breathe polluted air and drink poisoned water, willing to watch unemotionally as the poorest on the planet have their way of life systematically destroyed, because "the American way of life in non-negotiable."
Millions are asking what would make a young man kill 32 people and himself. Are we asking ourselves what would make a government kill hundreds of thousands of people? I’ve heard that the reason for Bush’s commitment to endless war is not "terrorism" abroad, but our shaky economy; if not for the wars, the dollar would crumble and the euro would gain ascendancy, causing our economy to topple. Translation: the price of our way of life is endless war.
Yes, we are asking Congress to "step it up"—last Saturday, there was a very encouraging presence of thousands of people in cities large and small calling for cuts in global warming emissions of 80% by 2050. That’s only 2% a year, though. What about setting some closer, more daring and ambitious goals, like 20% in the next year? What about setting some goals for 2025, along with a well-researched and thoughtful plan for getting there? We can learn from other cities and towns that are doing just that: Kinsale, Ireland; Portland, Oregon; Willits and Sebastopol, California; Ithaca, New York.
Here is a closing haiku:
Sunlight on water:
The constant, reflected in
The ever-changing.
Cathy Holt
www.kindcommunication.com
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest
And let the spirits fly in and out.
- Rumi
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