by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.” – Wendell Berry (Farmer, Writer, Academic)
There is little else, theoretically, that could be said here and one could leave it simply at that. However, it takes all of us to make the little extra effort and care for our Mother, our Earth, and to help Her to heal.
This cannot and will not work, however, by government decree, as is being tried all over the place as it cannot work under the current economic system and political systems, most of the latter being one form or the other of capitalism.
Truly we must cherish the Earth on which we stand, for all She provides for us, in so many ways we are nurtured by Her, forgiveness and giving is Her nature, it's ourselves we need to cherish, for we are the ones that will get destroyed first if we continue to exploit Her. In the end She will replenish herself but without us. The Earth does not need us but we need the Earth regardless of what Prof Hawkins in the UK says who advocates that we find another Planet where we can live. Or does he mean another Planet that we can ravish?
There is no other Earth, at least not of which we are aware and which we could even hope to reach and thus we must rethink and we must change the way that we live.
We must shift from living on the Earth to living with Her, as Tiokasin Ghosthorse said, and treat Her, and those are my words, like a Mother that she is.
She is, however, also Gaia, and also Kali, that is to say She who gives birth but she who also destroys and we better heed that message for She will destroy us before She will allow us to destroy Her and the rest of Creation.
We have a duty to care for our Mother, the Earth, and it is a duty that is even obligated to us in the Bible which both Christians and Jews claim. However, the term dominion over creation does not mean domination; it means to be a husbandman, a caretaker, of the environment, of Nature.
Very few of those that claim to follow that book have so far understood and followed it. Instead they seem to believe – nay they do believe – that they have a G-d given right to exploit the Earth and all its riches.
Man in his greed and pursuit of profit has ravaged the natural resources of the Planet and many of which can never be replenished, such as coal, oil, gas, and minerals. Even gold is, though it never was plentiful, hence its value, getting close to a peak, much like oil, which has gone well past peak already and the oil in Saudi Arabia is reckoned to fail (entirely) in the next couple of years.
We need to do a full 180degree turn, reverse gears, and learn to take care of the Earth, our Mother, for She will continue but we won't if we don't.
© 2012
