EARTH DAY
We live on a beautiful but endangered planet. Planet Earth is our home and we have a responsibility to take care of it and to take care of all its residents who comprise our earth family. A dysfunctional family leads, as we know, to the breakup of a home. Are we on the way to this catastrophe?
The small view encompasses the environment and the people around us. Most of us identify with our individual family, with our neighbors, with our neighborhood, with our city, our state, our country. We are part of these entities and they are part of us, and we do our best to implement this. Life is good.
Holistically, the view is broader. We are all part of a whole, and what affects one part affects us all. We live now in a globalized world, and we have advanced in knowledge and participation in this world. Hopefully, we are also advancing in wisdom.
Our climate is changing and presenting new challenges to all sections of the globe. Perhaps what is just an inconvenience to us at times, is a serious problem to others areas of drought or floods or damaging storms. Perhaps the earth is suffering.
Our nation is relatively prosperous, although economic inequality has grown and brought hardship to many of our own citizens. Wealth has not only provided luxurious lifestyles to some, but also political power, while a majority lose hope for a better life and a voice that will be heard.
Around the world life is even more precarious. Wars rage and hostilities threaten from the Middle East to Africa to Asia and even within other countries including our own. Governments vie for resources and power and territory. People follow the lead of propaganda that calls others their enemies. Fear overcomes reason. Weapons become more powerful and available. All this brings death and destruction. The earth groans for its survival and the survival of its earth family.
On Earth Day it's hard to celebrate as a family. It's hard to proclaim our own good stewardship of the only home we have. Futurists prepare for a different earth, disregarding unexpected consequences; rejectionists look to escape routes to other planets; some valiantly do their little bit and hope for the best; others heedlessly live their lives in ignorant and uncaring bliss.
But hope springs eternal. As more and more people celebrate Earth Day, awareness of our responsibility to our planet and to our connectedness to it and to each other can increase, and with it our wisdom to take the steps now that are necessary to preserve this beautiful home for our children and future generations in love and in peace. Here's to a happy and thought-provoking Earth Day!
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