I really liked what Turtlesuds wrote about spending time naked in Eden; yesterday I took two four-year olds out to the Columbia River Gorge for a wild run up and down stony trails, chasing each other, looking at endless waterfalls and giant Doug Fir trees; we got high on oxygen and running, us city-kids, not used to lots of fresh, unpolluted air.
For three hours we ran; we became this mystical tribe called the Centurians; the four-yr olds became our leaders, we had to keep running, because we where looking for food for our tribe..we collected ferns and pine-cones and Doug Fir branches; these where our food, as the wild chase went on, it became a date that one of the four-yr olds was late for, he was meeting up with Snow White, she was waiting for him, so we had to run.
Four yr olds live on some mystical plain that I wish I was a part of; they claim to still remember their births, yet they are moving into the realm of curiosity about sex and dating and love; that curiosity that never goes away; they are in this magical half-way from babyhood to childhood; they still tap easily into the other realms that adults aren't privy to, but they understand reality with a brutal honesty that is sometimes difficult to handle. They ask those questions that are so hard to answer; such as "Why do people starve to death?" "Why is that dog always on a chain?" "Why do adults get drunk?" "Why do you like kissing?" A four yr old has no qualms about asking questions that might make you uncomfortable; they are brutal, they are frank, they see the world honestly.
Yesterday, while running through the woods, we could see the highway far below us, next to the highway was a railroad track. Some men where working on the track, welding something, faces shielded by wielding masks. Andrew picked up a stick and pretended it was a gun; he "shot" at the welders, calling them "stormtroopers." I thought about how real and accurate his description of them was; these men, after all, are working to maintain a part of the infrastructure of this evil-empire. As I watched them welding, up above, in the trees, I thought about the trains that would pass by there, carrying destructive goods we probably don't actually need, and how our system is, in every way, counter the survival of the few remaining trees we where running through.
Love ya,
Carrot
How many 4 year olds would die if the goods provided by that 'evil empire' quit flowing?
We could certainly do without many of the things that free people choose to buy with their own money, but who besides the individuals currently making those choices do you want to put in charge of deciding which we should be allowed to have?
"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."
--Andre Gide
I don't personally want any four-yr olds to die; and therein lies my daily dilemma...here are the facts I know, and why I struggle with them:
1) We are grossly overpopulated. This is not a theory, or an option, most people (except maybe octomom,) will agree that this is fact. Because of this overpopulation, like rats in a crowded lab cage, our fertility rates are dropping, but the question remains, are they dropping fast enough? Will we suddenly have an exponential death rate? Will the planet collapse before the population drops enough to reach some sort of balance? We've reached the point where the rats in the cage are swimming in their own feces; they are looking for food sources that are no longer there, they are experiencing growing anxiety and antisocial behavior as a result of their overcrowding. So one way or the other, four year olds will probably die. I'm not happy about this, it is just a fact. In fact, four year olds are already dying in many parts of the world because of this situation.
2) We are grossly overusing the few natural resources we have left. Visit any airport, mall, bus station, city, university, average Western home and you'll see what I mean. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of airports, malls, bus stations, cities, universities, average Western home and you start to understand the amount of shit we are actually paddling around in. I am just as "guilty" of overusing resources as anyone else; naturally, attending school I use ridiculous amounts of paper, I use computers, electric lights, printers, copiers, sometimes I drive a car, I cool my food with a fridge, I sometimes use a clothes dryer, I shower regularly, etc, etc. If everyone lived at the level I live at, we'd need 1.5-2 earths just to keep everyone alive! Obviously, even my super "sustainable" lifestyle isn't sustainable...I do all of the "right" things and still it definitely isn't a really sustainable lifestyle.
3) Even those of us who are "privileged" (oh how I hate this term,) no longer have access to things like pristine drinking water, food not contaminated in some way(s), some way to screen ourselves from all of the pollution/misery in the world. That tells you something; when even the rich can't get the most basic of needs met well, we are definitely running out of things, such as fresh water and good foods...
Love ya,
Carrot
...We humans were not so inventive.
...The earth was not a closed cycle(we have already been reusing everything here for billions of years).
...Nature didn't always find a balance. It is also always a very messy violent process however...
Struggle to survive.
That is all that life does, always has, always will.
Nature is not some perfect harmonious thing, it is a fight for a place, for dominance, for the very right to exist. ALL of the flowers and trees you have ever seen are presently growing in shit and waste from themselves and everything that came before them.
Every city has one or more mountains of trash. Within each of those mountains life is thriving, adapting, fighting for dominance, mutating, and breaking down that trash into soil for future flowers. All of those mountains together in one place would make a cube not quite ten miles on a side. From the moon that cube would barely be visible as a tiny dot on a clear day.
Starvation has always kept population in check. Abundant food has only recently allowed the situation you are calling over population. Most of the expansion of human life expectancy in this past 100 years has come as a result of curing childhood diseases. 4year olds eat better, are healthier, and get a better education in today's' world than ever before.
The same glass is half full and half empty. There is such a plethora of things to look at in the world that we all miss most of it. We choose which minority to see. I think that I am having more fun seeing a world where things are as good or better than they ever have been, than you are seeing a desperate world on the edge of disastrous collapse. Will it have been worth it even if eventually your version turns out to be more correct?
"Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace."
--Oscar Wilde
From time to time. I guess I was raised to look for disaster; from birth on my mom taught me about the coming apocalypse, to the point where I developed these weird OCD disorders related to the apocalypse, such as making sure all the curtains where open at all times, so that when electricity suddenly disappeared, the sun would illuminate the house (strange, non-rational thoughts of a little kid.)
Because I was raised to seek out disaster, I'm more inclined to think about the positive growth that can come out of disaster, rather then the positive points of this crumbling empire.
Long live capitalism! The faster we destroy, the closer we get to crashing into a state of utter and complete chaos...
Love ya,
Carrot