Anything you can do ...
I was just listening to some rant about the decline of the North American Great Plains and it suddenly hit me. God is the greatest gardener ever. And I suspect that he's probably a might annoyed with us for messing up his garden as badly as we have. (For those interested, the rant was located in the novel "On the Wing".)
Now I know that many religious folks will read that second sentence and say, "That's exactly what I've been trying to tell you for years!" Maybe they have and I've just been too blinded by my own ego to hear them. Or maybe they had another idea that they tried to express with those words and they got the message wrong. But when I heard how intricate and interdependent the ecosystem of the Great Plains was it occurred to me that no human gardener could plan out such a beautifully self-sustaining system let alone allow it to accept the occasional ravages of herds of buffalo. It had elaborate yet simple systems to deal with insects, grazing, dry seasons, fire, flooding, and every other disaster that nature holds except for human technological advancement. Even more impressive at driving home how well it had been set up was the observation of how much is going wrong now that we have come in and set up our own inferior systems to feed billions with no intention of making it self-sustaining.
It's an amazing thought and I finally see the appeal of the 'dirty hippies.' It seems a tragedy worse than destroying every painting by every artistic master in human history to damage these gardens of our world. They are intricate and beautifully crafted works that should earn our respect and admiration instead of inciting our greed and selfishness.
Maybe when we've all finished growing into the beings we are supposed to be we will all be able to be grateful instead of destructive. And maybe not. Maybe we are the final plague meant to wipe life from the earth. Or maybe we're supposed to preserve and protect all life. An interesting question and I suspect I will never know the answer to it; at least I won't know the answer until after my death when I can no longer use it to influence my decisions.
Now I know that many religious folks will read that second sentence and say, "That's exactly what I've been trying to tell you for years!" Maybe they have and I've just been too blinded by my own ego to hear them. Or maybe they had another idea that they tried to express with those words and they got the message wrong. But when I heard how intricate and interdependent the ecosystem of the Great Plains was it occurred to me that no human gardener could plan out such a beautifully self-sustaining system let alone allow it to accept the occasional ravages of herds of buffalo. It had elaborate yet simple systems to deal with insects, grazing, dry seasons, fire, flooding, and every other disaster that nature holds except for human technological advancement. Even more impressive at driving home how well it had been set up was the observation of how much is going wrong now that we have come in and set up our own inferior systems to feed billions with no intention of making it self-sustaining.
It's an amazing thought and I finally see the appeal of the 'dirty hippies.' It seems a tragedy worse than destroying every painting by every artistic master in human history to damage these gardens of our world. They are intricate and beautifully crafted works that should earn our respect and admiration instead of inciting our greed and selfishness.
Maybe when we've all finished growing into the beings we are supposed to be we will all be able to be grateful instead of destructive. And maybe not. Maybe we are the final plague meant to wipe life from the earth. Or maybe we're supposed to preserve and protect all life. An interesting question and I suspect I will never know the answer to it; at least I won't know the answer until after my death when I can no longer use it to influence my decisions.
posted by Gunrock - DGH | 11:42 AM
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