There is far too much here to comment on all of your thoughts, but truly everything is connected. I think frequently about the fact humans and every other life form evolved from the same single cell organism when oceans formed on our wondrous planet. You mentioned octopus and bird intelligence, yes! Other creatures have perceptions, thoughts and emotions. That should cause us to grant them respect. I suspect whales are deep thinkers, with their songs across the oceans. The development that gave us the biggest advantage was not our brains, but our hands, with which we have invented our destruction in numerous ways.
If we were intelligent, we would realize our gifts are a responsibility and live accordingly, with as light a footprint as possible as caretakers of the Earth. That's where meaning, which I equate with happiness, live. More pandemics are on the way with climate change, and if any of us survive, I hope it's a profound leap in our consciousness. If it's still available, this film, My Octopus Teacher, is absolutely beautiful. https://www.netflix.com/title/81045007
Thank you for your strong reminder of the interconnectedness of all the insanity surrounding us. The sheer immensity of all these threads often leaves me wondering where and how do I start.
This often reminds me of 2 items.
#1. A line from an author whose name I never remember correctly: “If you can keep your head while all around you are loosing their’s, then yours is the world and everything that’s in it.”
#2. As captain of a boat that you have knowingly or unknowingly sailed into a nightmare your only hope is to find a calm place within and cut out all the extraneous noise/ inputs.
As for #1. Finding and keeping our heads will not be easy. And given our current trajectory there won’t be a world humans in their current form can inhabit.
As for #2. The seas we are hoping to sail through are unlike anything we have ever seen or imagined. Those of us who have sailed through big seas are coming to understand that what we are facing is not just one sea but many in forms never imagined.
My current approach is to pick one to work at and hope that others will pick other threats and together or community can make a substantial change. This doesn’t mean I don’t try to act on many fronts, only that only one will receive real effort.
There is far too much here to comment on all of your thoughts, but truly everything is connected. I think frequently about the fact humans and every other life form evolved from the same single cell organism when oceans formed on our wondrous planet. You mentioned octopus and bird intelligence, yes! Other creatures have perceptions, thoughts and emotions. That should cause us to grant them respect. I suspect whales are deep thinkers, with their songs across the oceans. The development that gave us the biggest advantage was not our brains, but our hands, with which we have invented our destruction in numerous ways.
If we were intelligent, we would realize our gifts are a responsibility and live accordingly, with as light a footprint as possible as caretakers of the Earth. That's where meaning, which I equate with happiness, live. More pandemics are on the way with climate change, and if any of us survive, I hope it's a profound leap in our consciousness. If it's still available, this film, My Octopus Teacher, is absolutely beautiful. https://www.netflix.com/title/81045007
Excellent. I made a link to this from my last one.
Tony,
Thank you for your strong reminder of the interconnectedness of all the insanity surrounding us. The sheer immensity of all these threads often leaves me wondering where and how do I start.
This often reminds me of 2 items.
#1. A line from an author whose name I never remember correctly: “If you can keep your head while all around you are loosing their’s, then yours is the world and everything that’s in it.”
#2. As captain of a boat that you have knowingly or unknowingly sailed into a nightmare your only hope is to find a calm place within and cut out all the extraneous noise/ inputs.
As for #1. Finding and keeping our heads will not be easy. And given our current trajectory there won’t be a world humans in their current form can inhabit.
As for #2. The seas we are hoping to sail through are unlike anything we have ever seen or imagined. Those of us who have sailed through big seas are coming to understand that what we are facing is not just one sea but many in forms never imagined.
My current approach is to pick one to work at and hope that others will pick other threats and together or community can make a substantial change. This doesn’t mean I don’t try to act on many fronts, only that only one will receive real effort.