Dream

We are alive in a moment of Earth history in which the world we once knew is clearly ending. We are in an extinction event. The ecosystem (and the weather is a part of that) is in many ways collapsing. And we're part of it. The relatively thin skin of the planet is in decline - in number of species and (I think also) quantity of life.

At the same time - like the phoenix bird rising from the ashes of the death of the old - marvelous new technologies are coming into possibility, which (should we manage to get along well enough to survive this most dangerous time) can stabilize life and establish a new ecosystem. We are like the caterpillar who can't imagine the butterfly which it is to become. Having played a central role in the destruction of so much of the living community of which we are a part, only now as we awaken to how much we have lost are we beginning to suffer the consequences of the destruction of the ecosystem services formerly provided by those living things that are gone and dying. The weather has been modified and softened by the living things - soil life, plants, animals all together in communities - No more.

The weather extremes are getting greater because we did not respect that plants and the other non-human animals are alive. We used the ecosystem as if it were just a big collection of things - plants and animals to be eaten, burned or whatever we wanted to do with them. Now there's this terrible loneliness for what we are losing so much of (for me it's the frogs) which can only be eased by working in service of whatever life we CAN save and nurture.

I dream of a world in which the young learn from the mistakes of those who were once young. Where the blind logic of argument dissolves into the humanity of love. Where we all finally manage to stop looking up and down at each other. Where food grown is food shared, period - no buying and selling, no advertising, no having to be wasted because it wasn't able to be sold. Where dictators take off their crowns BEFORE they get knocked off. Where our rapidly advancing communication technology is finally allowed to tune in to the songs of the trees rather than to the grunts of football players. Where the fresh new Spring green growth of meadows is not injured and stunted by noisy stinky lawn mowers and weed whackers spewing gas fumes. Where lawn fertilizer/pesticide applicators (poisoning us while in mortal pursuit of that most deadly of enemies - the dandelion weed) are replaced by mushroom growers and front yard gardeners and egg layers and horse riders and worm whisperers and visible nature spirits. Where pleasuring by mouth with poison fake "food" (later to suffer the pain of numerous medical problems caused by this "food") is replaced by a sensitivity to the complex delights of the real thing - real live food, grown without chemicals and with all the nutrients that give it its delicious taste.

Our taste buds have been so dumbed down that we have been deluded into thinking the only tastes are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Whether it be corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup or sugar (or "sucrose" which is just another way of saying "sugar" without the manufacturer having to admit to having added sugar to what you're eating) or whether it's aspartame or nutrasweet or fructose or glucose or whatever - we're engulfed in the sweet taste to smother the tastes of the industrial chemicals that are also in that highly processed food. The many trace minerals and other nutrients in a healthy plant are what humans have co-evolved to enjoy. The profit motive has over the centuries provided the incentive to compete successfully by stretching out food with fillers and copious advertisements, so that nowadays the eating experience is so often about TRYING to satisfy one's hunger than actually being able to do so. Chemicals such as monosodium glutamate are added which, aside from whatever medical damage they do, are there in your mouth for no other reason than to "enhance taste" (increase your desire so you keep on buying and eating.)

We live in Upside Down World, where many of the things we believe are not actually true. Ever since we humans learned to talk, we started to figure out how to lie to each other (and to ourselves). The natural tendency is to believe that which is in synch with one's desires (conscious or otherwise). So our history is full of pleasant lies we've told ourselves. And these lies continue to do damage.

Here's an example of an upside down belief so many people have. If I say "Germs are bad," many would respond something like, "Well, duh!" But microbes are NOT bad. In fact, most of them are good - either directly or indirectly - from a human point of view. We've got to not only stop making war on the microbes but nurture them - because (among the other services they do us) diverse microbial communities actually suppress outbreaks of disease.

Centuries of what you might call bandaid economics has brought us to think we are in an enemyship relationship with microbes, when in fact microbes are even an essential part of the functioning of our digestive systems.

Not problem-solving holistically by looking at the big picture, we solve one problem by making another. Overcrowded conditions in the cities led to the invention of the flush toilet - staving off disease caused by malnutrition-induced lower immune systems exposed to human waste no longer being returned to the soil as it was in past rural times. So what was once the fertility of the soil ends up polluting rather than being a resource. Our rivers overfull of nutrients are choking the oceans, while a very high percentage of our waste is organic but going to landfills (where it will ferment to cause greenhouse gases). Band-aids which make the problems worse in the long run.

The only way to maintain sanity in a world which in some ways really is insane is to focus confidently on your version of the dream - that which most makes YOU happy.