Wisdoms from the Journey - Vol IV (Nov 2011 thru Apr 2012)

Caring for the Earth …
(04/22/2012)
“We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now -- save the
trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails. And the greatest arrogance of all:
save the planet. Save the planet?! We don’t even know how to take care of ourselves …
The planet has been through a lot worse than us -- been through earthquakes, volcanoes,
plate-tectonics, solar flares, magnetic storms … hundreds of thousands of years of
bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves,
erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think a few plastic bags and some
aluminum cans are going to make a difference?!?
The planet isn’t going anywhere … WE are! We’re going away … We’re going
away, and we won’t leave much of a trace, either -- well, maybe a little Styrofoam … The
planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone; just another failed mutation; just another
closed-end biological mistake -- an evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off
like a bad case of fleas.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will
heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system.
The air and the water will recover -- the Earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that
plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new
paradigm: the Earth plus plastic.” ~ George Carlin
OK, I’ll admit that this quote is a little negative and somewhat edgy (to be
Kind, I even edited out Carlin’s more ‘in your face’ phrases therein), and yet it
does make an important point: namely, that The Universe is doing just fine — that
we are indeed far too “small” to really do any permanent damage to our planet’s
“bigger picture”.
Aaaaaaaaand yet, George seemed to miss another point — one that is
possible much much much more important. And that point is this: WHAT WE DO
HERE TRULY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE! You see, Earth Day is about so
much more than just taking care of the planet — It’s just as much about
remembering to Care for each other. After all, if we can remember to actively do
the latter, the former will naturally follow … So get involved this Earth Day, my
Friends. Heck, make the principles of Earth Day an entire Earth Year — Heck,
make them an entire Earth Life!
“When you have once seen the
glow of happiness on the face of a
beloved person, you know that a man can
have no vocation but to awaken that light
on the faces surrounding him. In the
depth of winter, I finally learned that
within me there lay an invincible
summer.” ~ Albert Camus
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