A Wonderful Dream
I read this amazing article the other day that I found on Facebook. It reminds us that the beautiful, green, dream-like world that we live in, Today, could truly be just a dream, to our children, when they have grown. The author opened up and shared with us her own ambivalence about showing her own tiny child the joys of a world of nature that hangs in the balance.
As Facebook is known to do, this article sparked a lot of comments. One that caught my attention was written by a fiery personality who elicits my respect. Here I will only call this person B.D. for short:
- B.D: I love Ed Abbey, but the time is long past for half-hearted efforts. It is no longer more important to enjoy nature than it is to fight to save it, and to think otherwise is simply selfish. Nothing less than our full attention and efforts will solve this crisis.
Now I know that calling the author selfish isn’t respectful, and I probably should have mentioned that in my reply to B.D. but that would have drawn the readers’ attention from the main point that the original author was trying to make. She was actually hoping to ignite the flames in the hearts of people like B.D. who will go and become pro-active activists alongside Greta Thunburg and others like her and the Water Protectors who defended against the laying in of Federally owned oil pipelines through Native American land and water at Standing Rock, North Dakota.
Instead of snapping at B.D. for calling the author “selfish” I took a breath and the time to realize that we all really want the same thing, and pointed that out to B.D. and to anyone else who might be interested that there is a way in which we can help each other to fight the good fight, even when our battle techniques are greatly varied.
Think of it this way. Every superhero has their own weapon of choice or superpower. We do too:
- Me: B.D, Yes, AND it is important to teach our children, from a tender age, what we are saving for them, and WHY. This author’s way of doing so is to take her child out in nature, to experience it. She is helping her child to begin to make early memories and to gain an understanding and APPRECIATION of nature. Those who appreciate and enjoy a thing are more likely to fight to protect it. We all fight the good fight, in our own way, Mr. DeLaGrange, Sir, and those with your passion will lead those of us who will put ourselves in harm’s way to fight that fight. Others will pass petitions and stuff envelopes to send to D.C, and then teach their children what we are all fighting to save, so that our children may enjoy it, together, once we have won this battle, TOGETHER, FROM DIFFERENT FRONTS.
You probably garner, by my statement, that my sentiments closely mirror those stated by HRC, when she said that WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER.
But that is not the sum total of my sentiments, or my dream. Here is the rest: Our very green world will continue to exist by our efforts to make it so, and that will bring us to the realization that we have been working TOGETHER across racial, financial, religious, age, ability, gender and all other barriers to make it happen.
We have seen a 9 year old build a solar powered water heater from recycled parts, and this NINE YEAR OLD was not only very young, but also MEXICAN. And that’s not all. This child was also……FEMALE.
I have seen an ACTOR begin to work on a coalition to help create robots that could clean up our world within a decade.
I’ve seen a 19 year old Dutch kid create a sort of a robot that will help clean up our oceans.
And finally, I’ve seen a young Swedish girl, with Aspergers, move mountains……..of people to march for climate change.
http://celebsiren.com/greta-thunberg-wiki/
Did I say “finally”? I shouldn’t have, because I could go on. I’m very good at being prolific, which you will notice, if you look back at my last two or three blog posts, here on Medium- all written within the past couple days……….
But just because I CAN doesn’t mean I SHOULD.
Which is the opposite of what I usually preach from my soap box, but you need to put it in proper context, and this is a great place to remind you of what I mean, when I say: ……..and because we CAN, we MUST.
Firstly, you have to understand that I am writing to you from a place called California.
Secondly, you need to understand that I take a lot of pride in my home COUNTRY of California for her drive to take care of her own people, for she does have the drive, if not always the ability……..lately.
“What has hurt our ability, of late, to care for our own?” you may ask. I’m so glad you asked, as that is to be the topic of my next blog post,
Why Can’t California……??
Because, as I said earlier, just because I CAN doesn’t mean I SHOULD go on interminably.