Yes, we might as well face the ghastly truth, it is indeed Monday. . . .worse yet, it’s Monday MORNING. . . so “we have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep” to paraphrase Robert Frost. Miles to go. .
The 22nd of April was Earth Day, and this year the theme is “Invest in Earth” or some such, and it’s fine as a theme, as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Here’s an example of what I mean…
Today I’m walking. Rocks, soil, worms and germs, and minerals and of all kinds are underfoot, dry bones, this is, a valley of dry bones. Flowing in and out during my walk is O2, C02, hydrogen, nitrogen traces of this and that, today during my walk on, in, and around the soil, minerals the plants, the earth and I in tandem are producing and exchanging so that we are kept both earthly and sustained.
I could think that I’m alone on this walk because earth is a suspended in a sea of black, but the black of space is yet more earth, metaphorical amniotic fluid containing the warmth, the dark, containing all of time, future and past within its reach, harnessing force and gravity, releasing power and defining mystery, all elements present in life and in death, in space, land, water, weather and human biology.
We know it’s a good thing this Earth Day, 2023, to invest in earth — plant a tree, recycle plastic, fix up a compost pile….but is it the BEST thing?
Perhaps the best thing requires something more than just healthy clean-up chores and feel-good “I recycle!” stickers. In this time, we call for a radical shift in perspectives and plans, a reorientation in our view, from earth as a planet we live upon and use to survive , from space as a destination and source of material gain, and from humanity as the lone Apex predator with inborn privilege and power, to the the fact of interdependence and a social, political, environmental and economical paradigm which looks more like a web than a throne.
“We are all connected.
NdG
To each other, biologically.
To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the
universe, atomically.”
Yes, it’s a late Monday free chat, you know what to do. Happy belated earth day.