is a beautiful and wonderful place...and it's under great stress
We've all read, seen and heard the news, the discussions, the lectures and the documentaries.
We all know that human greed, warmongering and sheer carelessness has had a huge, detrimental impact on Earth, and that our mushrooming global population will keep on demanding more and more land, fuel and resources, until some crisis point is reached.
But as individuals, however much we recycle our bottles and sign petitions, we often feel very helpless and ineffectual in the face of the huge corporations, the land-grabbing developers and the vast numbers of innocent folk who simply need feeding.
Do we stop trying? Is the green movement a waste of time? In the vast scheme of things, will anything we do make any difference in the long run? Some reckon that Planet Earth will, before very much longer, shrug off most of her human population, as they succumb to a super-virus or are bombarded by natural disasters and self-engineered famine.
It's easy to become depressed, to feel defeated by the enormity of the place in history in which we find ourselves. But does that mean we should give up? There is no trite advice or benign platitude that can help us deal with this. Each of us has to chart his or her own path through the data, the complexities, the emotions and the uncertainty, and in the process, hope to attain that state of enhanced self-awareness that sidesteps the traps and snares of living by your ego, that suspends judgement and observes reactiveness without getting dragged in.
One way I know of getting close to this state is by spending time in nature, by meditating, by getting to know your inner self in such a way that you begin to observe your outer self, and the goings-on of the outer world, in a wonderfully detached, yet fascinated, way. It's hard to describe - but you definitely know it when you've found it!
And by doing whatever each of us feels is right to make some small, even tiny, contribution to reducing the damage, by raising awareness or engaging with hands, heart and mind in the bid to look after our planet, then a new kind of peace of mind can begin to drift into our consciousness.
Desiderada...not a universal panacea but a gentle reminder... (It has been laid out here in a long column, so that you can scroll down, slowly....)
"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant;
They too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
Many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the council of the years,
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a healthy discipline,
Be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here,
and whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God,
Whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."
Another Perspective: (with a touch of humour)
The Green Thing
was possibly written by John Tucker. It was published in the Spring/Summer 2012 edition of the SW Scotland Green Handbook, as it rather appealed to the Editor, Su Palmer-Jones, on whose desk it arrived one day.
In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, 'We didn't have the green thing in my day.'
The cashier responded, 'That's our problem today! Your generation didn't care enough to save our environment.'
He was right: our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the shop or off-licence. They sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized, refilled and re-used. So it could use the same bottles over and over, So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have lifts and escalators in every shop and office building. We walked to the local shops and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go to a supermarket. We bought fruit and veg loose - and washed them at home. We didn't have to throw away bins full of plastic, foam and paper packaging that need huge recycling plants fed by monster trucks all day, every day.
But the woman was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts: wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down (mostly hand-made or hand-knitted) clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand new clothing shipped from the other side of the planet.
But that old lady was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, shops repaired things, with funny things called spare parts - we didn't need to throw whole items away because small parts failed. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a huge screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we stirred and blended by hand, because we didn't have electric machines to do eeverything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. We exercised by working, so we didn't need to go to a brightly lit, air conditioned health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity and then drink millions of bottles of that special water from those plastic bottles.
But she's right: we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thristy, instead of using a plastic cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink, instead of buying a new plastic pen, and we replaced blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole plastic razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked, instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of socket to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish and chip shop.
But isn't it sad, the current generation laments, how wasteful we old folks were because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Please show this to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a young smartass. Lol