Our current world is seen by many to be on fire — not only at the molten core of the planet itself, but also close to our physical home bases on Mother Earth, as well. Her “skin” (the earthen surface on which we live and breathe) is presently inflamed due to intense, “psoriasis-like” human doings and misdoings — toward which the Earth Mother has her own kind of natural, inherently powerful “autoimmune” responses.
Such is pictured (above) in this mural that artist Red Hong Yi created out of 50,000 matchsticks. It represents how the global climate crisis connects all of us. Hence, it leads our imaginations toward the vast global scale where the pandemic could well lead us to a better, greener world.
In that same vein, on this week’s cover of TIME magazine is a large-print title, CLIMATE IS EVERYTHING. And on the attendant topic line, it observes that “As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s becoming clear: In every aspect of what comes next — how we plan, build, sell, educate, legislate, move, and create — our unified work is to address climate change.
The lead query in a similar article in the latest edition of Sierra (the national magazine of the Sierra Club) is this: “Will a Circular Economy Save the Planet? — The vision of an industrial society in sync with nature may have us spinning in circles.”
That perception, as best I can decipher it, draws a picture of a “circular economy” that is inspired by nature’s capacity to eliminate waste by transforming it into renewed fodder for its naturally integrated ecosystems. For one huge example, redesigning industrial manufacturing where the lion’s share of materials are used and continuously reused can dramatically lessen harmful environmental impacts.
Yet meanwhile, amidst the omnipresent Macrocosm, Earth orbits around one of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. Although our planet is, by no means, at the center of the cosmos, there is cause to think of Earth and its myriad life forms as being singularly special.
Supporting evidence comes from the details of our planetary circumstances, as well as from observations of certain fundamental constants in nature that appear to be “fine-tuned” for the existence of life.
Is Earth’s Life unique in the Universe? To know, in the end, whether Life exists beyond Earth, one must come to terms with the nature of one’s own significance here and now. Hence, any of Creation’s primeval elements like Climate, are essentially “closer than hands and feet” in the experience of us, each and all.
That, as a matter of course, begs the fundamental question, “What is the nature of my own personal “climate”, one moment to the next? Is my life’s every element part and parcel of the manifest expressions of Love, Truth, and Life?”
Living full-throated answers to such compelling questions is my full time occupation and deepest desire.
All the while, the Ever Unfolding Journey of All Journeys Continues …