It seemed like a good idea at the time…
Welcome to Earth! If your are reading this in twenty years, forty, or even sixty, I know you probably question many of our choices.
I know that much of the planet has become unbearably hot, stormy, and you have lost so many gorgeous creatures and regions.
Please know, Skyla, that a few of us already mourn those organisms we have driven to extinction. And, we fear for the suffering of those you likely have lost: the majestic polar bears, the determined penguins, the elegant albatross, the magnificent whales, the stupendously beautiful snow leopards and other graceful felines.
Elephants are sensitive, and like insects and birds, they create place. They seed, prune, and secure the plants which make the soil and cycle the whole system into being every day. Lots of animals and plants work together to do this. Every day.
I have no idea how this is done in your time. Maybe we (you?) came up with conservation measures and technological adaptations? Most importantly, maybe people stopped waste.
Earth was never disposable, or single use, but otherwise good, good people have adapted ways of making trash out of things we should treat like gold. Trees, for example, or the few things we should make out of plastic for medical and emergency use that are either biodegradable, or endlessly up-cycled.
There is no disposable Earth
Never throw anything away, Skyla, in a world where there is no “away.”
That is, the lesson my generation never grasped, was that everything we use up and destroy — actually belongs to you: the future — and we sin egregiously every time that we steal it.
Trees are so noble, true, and lovely, we should treat them with the love and beauty they treat us with in shade, in fruit, in construction materials and even in your pencil, (if there is still such a thing!) But, trees do much more than just that, they provide, protect, and purify our water. They host the biodiversity that creates the world.
I am sure, if you are alive, your generation has learn controlled burns, water retainment, urban terrace gardening, cricket farming, green ag and energy, and so many other technological wonders through collaboration of equals.
Maybe we learned to love each other enough to love all the creation?
For myself, I cannot bear the thought of losing all these beings and blessings. For the sake of your sanity, I truly hope that for never having them, you don’t have to feel the grief of losing them.
I certainly hope so.
Maybe we learned to love each other enough to love all the creation.
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
—
Photo credit: Jill Sauve on Unsplash
