Dear Reader, This insightful piece was written by my friend Kathleen Jacoby under the title, "Nurturing Nature." She speaks of mankind seemingly always "fighting," whether among itself or with nature with frequently disastrous results.
One morning as I was having my breakfast and listening to the news, the statement came over the air waves that we must fight global warming, and I thought, “here we go again”. The same attitude that got us in to this mess is the same one being touted as the way out, i.e. “fighting”.
The human species, and most often those in power, are hell bent on fighting against something. Their attitude is framed in opposition rather than collaboration, and we see again and again the results of this narrow frame of reference that always sets up a good guy and bad guy scenario.
In the case of nature, we were always fighting it in the past to tame it, to show our dominion of it, etc. etc. This attitude has finally put us into a deep adversarial position with the source of sustenance that provides for our life on the planet. As we continue the attitude of fighting, there is always a loser. Yet, when we nurture nature, everyone wins, and everyone is included in a process that honors and respects our earth, oceans, and the air we breathe.
Nurture is about inclusion, and about sharing. Fighting is about weaponry and alienation and dominating. That isn’t going to work anymore. We’ve done enough dominating of people, place, and things long enough – and all we’ve done is to create hostile environments, rape the land and resources, and treat our fellow human beings with enmity because their view or beliefs differ from ours. There is no nurture in this, and there is no quality of life with this attitude. So, it’s time to take a different approach.
Let’s band together to nurture nature. We can start in our own homes and gardens. We can ask ourselves if the way we use resources is helping our planet or hurting it, and we can recognize that we are co-creators with the earth in the process of housekeeping – or planet keeping. We are not here to show how much we can devour or take away from anyone else. We are here to exchange our views and abilities and to do the best we can to uphold a vision of life that celebrates everyone and everything in its God given purpose. None is better or worse – all are equally valuable and play different parts, regardless of appearance. So…let’s start nurturing and stop fighting. And while we’re doing that regarding our planet, let’s also include ourselves in the process and begin to love who and what we are as well. Novel idea, isn’t it?!
From Seasons of the Soul print edition, Autumn 2008 http://www.kathleenjacoby.blogs.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment