It's Symbiosis, Stupid
Lots of people “get” it. Why don’t our “Leaders”?
We were just down at the DC rally. With 40,000 of our friends and neighbors. Marching to the White House. Passing the fence where the Sierra Club’s executive director Michael Brune, the club’s president Alison Chen, 350.org’s Bill McKibben hand-cuffed themselves the week before. How serious is Global Warming. These scary awesome changes in our climate and the impacts on our environment?
Bill has been arrested before. But it was the first time in the history of the Sierra Club that the usually non-combative club went beyond their lobbying role, taking “one giant step for mankind” outside the legal system into civil disobedience. Polls are now showing that most people believe not only that the climate is changing, but that we humans have been and are still digging a hole we may never get out of. Our “Leaders” are sitting on their hands. They’re not leading. They’re not even following. Following the science and common sense. Following the idea that they are elected to protect the interests of the people they “serve”. Who are they serving if not the “people”? The “personificaton” of business interests affirmed by the Citizen’s United Case? Their tails? I don’t know.
They don’t get it!
Or if they do, they believe some miracle will preserve the status quo. Or at the very least, preserve their own hides. “hide”—a good word for what they’re doing. Maybe they need a good hiding.
All over the world people and governments are taking these challenges very seriously, making serious headway toward sustaining their futures, while our “leaders” are stuck in their uncompromising gold-plated bubble. Others’ll be sipping margueritas cooled by their renewably, naturally powered refrigeration. Getting it free because the link to nature they built has paid for itself many times over. While we’re standing there in our dirty coveralls yelling to be heard over the din of the drilling rigs and the politicians and the nay-sayers of the “Know Nothing “ party.
Not too long ago, people, and yes, corporations were asked to recycle. Most dragged their feet. Some lay down and had tantrums. Some had to be dragged kicking and screaming. I loved the ad that had the employee telling the executive that being green by recycling saved the company money. Saved money is made money. All of a sudden the executive was growing leaves. Getting on the band wagon. Getting with the program. Getting IT.
We won’t beat mother nature. We can’t even compete. We’re not even in the same league. We’re wanna-bes and if we don’t join her team we’re gonna be has-beens. We think we’re winning in a Universe we’re still struggling to understand. Parasites sucking the bodily fluids, mining the minerals, and pumping toxic wastes into our host as she suffers and eventually dies. We’re killing our pollinators and our food supply with pesticides. Why? “Ancient” civilizations on this Earth have destroyed themselves. We study them, critisize them, and skip merrily down the same path. But this time it’s planet Earth that’s at stake. Not just the Roman Empire or the British Empire or some local township. This is the only Earth we have. Unless you count the one they haven’t found yet. Where we’ll all be transported when we get done ruining this one.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Has anybody ever heard the term “symbiosis”. The word “sustainable” comes to mind. We can’t exist on Earth without consequences. But sprinting toward disaster is stupid. That we don’t aim our incredible ability to solve problems at achieving a symbiotic relationship with our Host is insane.
I’ve stopped getting the newspaper. I’ve stopped watching the politicians on TV. It’s like watching the Marx Brothers or the three Stooges make fools of themselves. I like watching old comedians. They’re supposed to be fools. They made a great living being fools. Well, come to think of it---
I’m still marching to the White House and talking to the guy beside me about my experiences working for a natural gas company. They’d be funny if they weren’t so dysfunctional and upsetting.
We need to transition from a parasitic to a symbiotic relationship with our Mother Earth. It’s not a want. It’s a need.
I’m literally trying to see the keys on my keyboard through my tears as I cry over spilled Mother’s Milk when, I truly believe, I should be sitting drinking margueritas, and laughing at each other’s jokes. Real ones. Funny ones.
