VI
I do not need to tell you about it. It’s a fact no one can deny. We are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world. It has always been like that since Ice Age, since the day the earth was created billions years ago. But never before has the world witnessed so many crises and injustices to our mother earth and her habitats which include us – humans like the past few decades. Forests are burned, animals become extinct, rivers are polluted, oceans are too,…
Do I feel sad? Yes. Do I feel despair? Not necessarily. Because just sitting there and weeping would not help. Raising voices and doing better things will. But what can we do when our mere existence is already a threat to our beautiful planet? Of course, I won’t tell you to die off. I am no Thanos. But since we, with our smartness, our inventiveness, our activities were able to have such a profoundly bad impact on every aspect of our planet, we can use that to turn it around too.
The planet – the earth – nature is the rivers, the trees, the mountains, the oceans, the chirping birds outside your window, the weeds on your sidewalk, the rocks, the minerals under the earth, the waterfalls and the green paddy fields. Have you ever looked at them and wondered what your relationship with them was? We actually have always been using them, either exploiting them or using them as an escape. There is no love of the earth; there is only usage of the earth. If we are able to stop and love the earth, we will become more careful in the way we use or make of the things of her. It was well to remember that we are part of nature and nature is part of our life and if we learn to live in harmony with nature like any other living creatures, the world will probably be fine.
It’s always easier said than done but I believe as many others have said “small steps make big changes” and let me borrow Rage Against the Machine’s lyrics: “it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?” It starts with you and me even though we are imperfect human beings living in this imperfect world, doing our imperfect things.