I wanted to discuss something with you all today.  Most of you who know me, have been wrapped up in one of my favorite things to do… to start a conversation about topics and ideas that most of us don’t talk about everyday. 

Things that were understood and deeply engrained into society back in generations of the past.  Ideas that most people never massage their brains with.  One of those thoughts and discussions is this:  why is it that we live in a world, which we no longer perceive as an absolutely rare and prized creation of nature, science, God or whatever else you believe?  I mean, let’s put aside our personal ideas about creation for a second, and realize that the common denominator for these ideas is the fact that we are a unique creation of the cold, harsh conditions of space and of darkness.

We feel this.  When you hold your cat, or your dog… you feel the warmth of their life.  When you hold your child, or hug your parents, you feel the heat of their breath and their life in their bodies.  Those of us who have been in a situation to experience a dead body, have experienced the lack of warmth, and energy in that body.

You guys realize that life, the very essence of what makes this planet what it is, is in fact a rare gem in a universe of cold, lifeless matter.  This is a big statement.  Imagine yourself on a very very cold night, absolutely naked outside in a blizzard.  Other planets are ten times colder than that.  Space is colder than that.  Everywhere in space is like that (except regions too close to stars thus too hot).  Life on this world of ours is a miracle.  We HAVE to realize this fact.  It is CRITICAL to our continuation as a species.

It fascinates me how people immediately get into a defensive position when they are told this.  As if battling against this point of mine, makes them better for their world or something of a champion of defending the intelligent counter-perspective.  But rather, if they were logical individuals, they would realize that by arguing against this idea, they are entertaining a possibility of a conclusion that would lead to devastation of life on this world.  Why would you consider it okay to gamble with the possibility of damage to life in this world?  In worst case scenario of an environmentalist position, the world continues as it is.  In the worst case scenario of a climate change challengers perspective, the world does experience climate change, and everything eventually falls apart.

Why is that okay?  I don’t think it is… I don’t think anyone who challenges climate change and the human activity that contributes to it, AND the external conditions that are effecting it (i.e. the Sun, solar winds, or whatever), has ANY right to even think they are right.  That is because they are not taking into consideration that they do not have a right to gamble with thousands of years of strife, and challenge, and struggle to just STAY ALIVE.  Animals, plants, bacteria, and every other life form on this world, experiences a challenge EVERY single moment of their lives.  They struggle.  They look for food.  They fight off prey.  They fight environmental conditions.  And they live on.  We however, engineer around struggle.  We develop artificial climate controlled environments.  We GROW food, and by grow, I don’t mean vegetables people… I mean animals.  Do your research and understand why we don’t raise animals, but actually grow them. 

We have removed ourselves from the appreciation of how difficulty it is to maintain life.  That is why it is okay for a person to drive a 18 mpg SUV and justify why they do it.  There is no justification what-so-ever.  No matter how hard yo utry to argue the counterpoint, you my dear friend are in a logical losing game.  You are obligated to protect and create sustainable solutions to every action you partake in.  If you don’t, you are gambling with the possibility that life on this planet may end.  And it you do that, then you are proving that you cannot think clearly.  You are proving that you’re ability to secure your own future is flawed; hence a corrupted product of the species, which is undermining the species will to survive.

I know that was a logical mess to read through… but I truly hope that everyone of you who read the above paragraph realize what it imposes on a person.  The idea that we are responsible for each other, BECAUSE we are responsible for ourselves.  The idea that if we live in a manner that possibly endangers life on this small rock we call Earth, we are the flawed product of nature.  Other animals stay in the balance that is struck for them by nature to insure the consistent flow of life.  We on the other hand are able to grow extra amounts of meat, we are able to tame the land and grow more food than naturally intended (we add nitrogen to soil and call it fertilizer).  We suck the remains of life forms in the past and burn them to power our transportation.  We dump our waste in any corner possible.  We live like a virus with complete disregard for our surroundings, or the effects it could have on the organism that hosts us.

So we live armed with tools to fight the environmental lifestyle.  We can’t imagine a world where we didn’t have the new jeans every year?  Or we can’t imagine what it would be like if we had to own a car for 20 years and maintain it?  We live in a world where we can’t make coffee using a standard non-polluting method like an Italian press, but we have to not have them in pods, prepackaged ready for purchase in another package, that was shipped to the store in yet another package. 

Our new argument is that, “are you crazy, you want to go back to a world where we lived in caves?”  But people don’t realize that this extreme retaliation proves their lack of understanding.  Simple doesn’t mean in caves.  It means taking into consideration what you leave behind.  When you go to a friend’s house for a weekend, or visit family, do you leave a mess in the guest room when you leave?  Or rather do you take the time to clean up your mess?  I would think most of use cleaned up?  Why is it then that we don’t treat our world like that?  Our world is really the ONLY home we have. 

I hate to bear the bad news folks… but Earth is your only home in the universe.  I say that with confidence, despite being an astronomer myself.  I say that because as long as we waste our energy, our consciousness on making malls, and building centers for businesses, and wasting our technologic innovations on entertainment, we are plummeting down the unfortunate hole of doom.  Imagine the scientific innovations that would be possible if all the minds of humanity were focused on them.  Imagine if WE ALL focused on the problem of hunger.  Imagine if we all paid attention to the problem of animal abuse.  Imagine if we all looked at the problem of climate change.  We are the most advanced creation of nature.  There are creations with advancements in other areas that are remarkable, but arguing that they are more superior is a derailment of a very important argument.  WE are responsible for what happens to this planet.  Not just now, but in the future.  Even many many thousands of years.  That is because we have science.  We have math.  We have logic.  We can think, and create solutions.  Other animals cannot.

We would teach our children about the possible warming of the Sun in the future and their imaginations would ponder creating solutions to moving life to another planet, and keeping this rare miracle safe.  Instead we teach them to think about being rich so they can afford better cars, and better homes, and better stuff.  If we focused ALL of our resources on fixing this world, we could insure life continued as long as the human will could imagine it to.  We have that power.

Shame on the media for not ACTUALLY teaching you.  Shame on the education system for not ACTUALLY teaching this.  Shame on religion for not ACTUALLY focusing on this.  Shame on the environmentalist who still eat meat.  Shame on us for not choosing to realize this.

Just recently I was having a conversation with a friend at a local coffee shop.  At the register, I asked the server to make my cup in porcelain,  I knew I was going to drink the coffee, during my conversation with my friend.  I care about our world and am cognoscente at every moment of my life about this.  10 minutes after us, a man walked in.  He was alone and came in to for a cup of coffee at the end of his day.  He sat and drank a relaxing cup of coffee, read the paper, and then went home.  Except, there was one critical problem.  This man ordered his drink, was NOT present, and took what he was given.  He then drank his coffee and littered in this world with his paper cup.  With his choice, he voted that it is okay to kill a tree for his 10 minutes of consumption of a product that could have been done sustainably.  This person used a paper cup for a sheer ten minutes of coffee.  Threw it in the trash and walked away, without any consideration of how negligent and gross his decision was.

THAT ladies and gentleman is the problem with out world today.  The fact that every one of us, fail to accept our faulty way, and the destruction it is bringing to our world.  Just look around you and look at what humanity does to it’s surroundings compared to a natural balance?

I think one of the reasons for this condition that we suffer from is the disconnection between the young and the elderly.  The elder is wise.  Wisdom is something that cannot be created artificially or synthetically.  Wisdom is earned with the difficult and unrelenting passage of TIME.  Our elderly can teach us a lot.  They lived through a depression, they can teach us that frugality is the key to balance.  Greed and consumption lead to an inevitable and painful death.  Can’t you see the signs around you?

But instead we bury our elderly in fancy, glorified jails we call assisted living.  We disconnect with our elders and refuse the care and embrace family provides in this critical time of life, in exchange for the ease of an assisted care facility.  So all the energy that was put into us by the elders to raise us, is now wasted on comfort rather than reinvested in their ability to contribute to us by sharing their thoughts about experience with us.  Our new world era tribe doesn’t sit around the fire and listen to the elders tell us stories about the past.  Rather, we visit them once a week in a facility and ask how the food is and how they like their neighbors.  We talk about what they thought of the Clay Aiken performance on American Idol and our plans for Thanksgiving.

Our education system is corrupt as well.  They segregate children from teenagers and get extremely militant when you confront them with this severe mistake.  Rather than realizing that this behavior of separating a 7 year old in the 2nd grade from a 16 year old in the 10th grade is a first ever in history.  In the natural world, and ancient human civilizations, children are immersed in the world of adults and deal with and develop around complex relationships and experiences.  But we, in our infinite wisdom, take children and put them with kids of their own age.  So when they learn, everything they process is on a single dimension of that age, rather than the input and adaptation to higher age groups, as well the tenderness a 17 year old sees in a 7 year old’s behavior.  Would this not add more peace and appreciation to our world?  Our elders lived this way… why aren’t we?

We are sick.  Our consciousness is ill.  The human race is suffering from a disease and history as well as religion has attempt to convey the message for a very long time.  The story of the original sin and the magical apple.  But really, regardless of your belief system, the core of this story, is that man, made a bad decision.  Man chose to bite from the “forbidden” fruit.  The fruit of knowledge.  Which led up to clothing, and humility, and ultimately economy.  And economy has led to our current world. 

To unravel this complex knot, we have to open our eyes, and undo the disease of the fruit.  We have to realize the importance of the metaphor of the “Garden of Eden” and the relevance of “eternal” happiness.  Our current prescription for this lifestyle is not working, and will never work.  It does not take into consideration the fact that we are budding at exponential rates wanting and taking from our world at rates much faster than it can heal from. 

Only one question remains, when are YOU going to realize this, and ACTUALLY change YOUR life?  Not knowing or being wrong is not the problem… Hearing that you are wrong, and not listening is. 

You can still change. 

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