— from Domenic Verbano —
Why is it that humanity can’t seem to shift our society to deal with the looming reality that we are irreparably destroying this planet by our culture and lifestyle? The Lifeforce of this world, itself, cannot take much more abuse. It is time to save our collective butts and have a real discussion, a societal shift away from our current practices that totally disregard the worth of other life.
Humanity is destroying the life support systems on this planet. It is hard to deny that. We see it all around us. The starfish, the sea anemones are dying off. I see this where I work. It is time, past time, to have a serious conversation about radically shifting the way we live. Do No Harm must become our motto and creed, to avert a catastrophe that many are calling the Sixth Mass Extinction.
We all spend way too much time collectively ignoring this reality. The new consciousness has to start somewhere. We have the conscious people on Orcas who could build the template for living consciously With the Earth, honoring all the other Life. Yes, it is a monumental problem, and one we need to solve.
What else could be so important?
It is time to put aside the Egos and all do our personal work that appears for us to do, to help save the living systems of this planet. We on Orcas have the conscious awareness in our community to pioneer a new template on how to live in harmony with all other life. This is needed now, we have help, but humanity must wake up and start living and practicing what we are preaching.
Going the way of the Dodo, silently, is not really an option. I put it to you all to wake up, come out of your emotional cradles, and look around and see what is happening to the Life around you, and what is important. Do you want to see this Earth preserved to the 7th generation? Then start Living It. Evolution is helping us, but we must Do The Work to change our minds and How We Live.
Let’s start by changing our wasteful ways. It is easy if we want to leave a healthy planet for the future generations. I do not have children but I try to live simy so others may simply live. Excuses in order to continue to be wasteful !
Shopping bags, paper cups, etc and the last straw !
Thank-you, Domenic. If we wish to save the wild orcas from extinction, we must preserve our wild shorelines and restore degraded shorelines where people have built too close to the water, cut down native trees, built rock walls on top of beaches where the little fishes lay their eggs, built docks over eel grass meadows, and allowed polluted runoff to poison the near-shore habitats. Our human impacts are destabilizing the natural balance upon which all life depends.
Domenic—
We are helped by evolution and if combined with a much deeper level of education and self awareness, then technology, too, can assist us in caring for our home and in helping to create a path away from death.
To get to the root of our human behavior, you need to get to the root of what we believe. As comforting as it is to cling to the familiar as we celebrate tradition, we can’t alter our behavior unless we clean the chalkboard.
Cleaning the chalkboard requires us to suspend our belief systems and to see the reality about ourselves and our condition, and then to choose a new path not based on tradition, the past or beliefs; but based on a rational understanding of the world around us and an acceptance of non-absolutes, of a perpetual degree of ignorance and an awareness that needs no bridge named “faith” to abide us going forward.
This, simply put, is the description of a truly open mind.
Without an open mind and it’s partner, humility, we are destined to survive only a fraction of the time of the dinosaurs.
Conclusions, absolutes and certainty are mental positions (states) that close one’s mind.
Getting deeply comfortable with uncertainty, ignorance and a world without “truth,” allows humanity a way out of its current cycle of irrational behavior that clearly has us on a self-destructive course.
It’s not enough to make note of what we do to the planet, our biosphere, our biodiversity, and all other life with whom we share this planet, you must get to the root of why we do what we do and in whose name we do it in. We need a clean slate and that starts with our belief systems.
Many reading this will say “even if I agree, this simply isn’t possible for human beings” to which I would answer “then our fate is sealed.”
But if some can do it, why can’t many. It’s, therefore, quite human to radically change how we see ourselves and the world. Individuals do it daily.
So before you think all is hopeless, truly think again but think anew.
We start with redefining “education.”