Imagine

I have learned that we see life through the lens of our own experience and those perceptions passed down to us by our elders, our primary care givers. Their interpretations become ours when our experiences fit the puzzle we are trying to work out. Hence some believe when they pray to St Anthony they will find what they have lost if after they have prayed they found what they are looking for. If we look at nature with each thing being separate and with a beginning and an end than all is eventually lost to a murderous end and if we see all of life as connected and always being and becoming than all is precious.

One point of view about nature...

And another point of view...

People are great believers and great deceivers.  In fact, deception and taking advantage of opportunities is a basic skill found in nature that ensures survival.
But how far is too far?
How much self is too much?
We find balance through examining our motives and intentions and making sure that our selfishness is in check when we make decisions.  That our decisions take into account the welfare of others too.  And even some times in place of our own.
People can be so noble and virtuous and so cruel.

In a lifetime we are faced with many decisions.
Many are easy and many are more difficult because of our lack of experience and insight.

Look at what we are doing to the planet.
For a moment consider
some of the greatest minds
great scientists have had their work twisted by those who have figured out how to make a lot of money
by pillaging our land and natural resources, recklessly.
I remember writing about these things decades ago.  I wish I still had those writings.  But in my heart I still feel it.  I am keenly aware that recycling everything we possibly can is what we should be doing.  That we need to stop stripping our natural resources out of the earth and burning it off and filling the atmosphere with toxic gasses that come right back down to the earth in the rain and snow.  That seep into the earth and find its way below the crust and back down into the Aquafer, that pure water the plants and roots of trees and we desperately need to survive.

Our planet is heating up.  Believe it or not, it is happening.
Maybe we need the oil in the ground to act as a temperature buffer, like it does in engines.  Maybe we need it in the ground to keep the layers of tectonic plates of bedrock from breaking up and causing huge earth quakes.  Maybe we need the gas in the earth for the same reason.
Maybe we shouldn't use Nuclear power for energy because we can't turn it off.  Because the waste is so toxic and impossible to contain forever that it is too dangerous.

But people don't want to think outside of their own experiences.  It is too easy to accept what others say and to disregard the damage we are doing to the very planet we depend on for survival.

What if.... instead of wasting money with plans of how to best kill each other and defend ourselves from one another we offered these same heroes in the making an opportunity to join together and figure out ways we can live and preserve the planet we all share?  Why can't we invest our intellectual and physical resources into finding passive ways to generate the energy we need.  And instead of propaganda apply ourselves to sharing information that is unbiased so we can join together and figure out what to do so we can live with one another and... share?  How about that?
Instead of accepting the fact that there is something beyond our control that connects us all we kill each other over defining what that something is.  How does that make sense?

Hundreds of millions of people have been killed in the name of God and political agendas, in the unspoken need for more and for what is yours.  And this damage is passed down through the generations.  People don't get over war.  And wars don't solve any problems.  They are a very real manifestation of greed and a lust for power and so those that are vulnerable have to then figure out a way to protect themselves but really, where does that get us?  No matter how small countries are sliced up or how many hundreds of years pass, whenever wars between people happen grudges are held.  Suspicions and old history seeps into the psyche of those who are living today.  How does this give us peace or help us to live on this amazing planet together?  This is where are feet walk.  This is where we breathe the air.  

Our militaries in our different countries are filled with brave people.  Why not make the focus a little different and instead of killing each other to survive, being heroes and figuring out how to understand each other and resolve problems with more than our fists and weaponry.  What would that kind of army look like?  The kind that helps rescue people after an earthquake or that helps a nation without resources to set up solar panels and preserve water and yes... even inform people about the importance of birth control so we don't over populate the planet.

See what we need to understand is that our natural resources are finite.  That means there is only so much of them and then these resources are gone.  Gone.  There are ways of recycling metals and ores and yes, even our trash and gasses without destroying this planet that we need to focus on.  But we need to respect nature and every living thing and figure out a way to live in harmony with it.

What if instead of grabbing and steeling and taking we just decided to share.  What kind of world would that be?