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Earth Conscious

Today, Earth Day, an Extinction Rebellion is going on in DC and has been for days all over the world. A die-in stopped traffic in NYC. Young people have been protesting and getting arrested in London, trying to get the attention of those in power so they’ll do something about the destruction of the earth. One of their websites defined it as an International Rebellion against the world’s governments for criminal inaction on the ecological crisis.”

That we are supported by the earth is not abstract. It is the ground we stand on and we are never outside its influence. The gravity that holds us close is constant and so utterly dependable that it goes unnoticed. We need the air, the water, the soil and food to maintain our physical existence. And the needs run deeper than that. Recently, I heard a report of the healing effects of nature on mental health, psychiatrists prescribing twenty minutes a day outdoors to perceptibly change mood. My experience walking a half hour each day confirms it on a personal level, and it’s a joy discovering what comes up around the house my first spring here. Graham Greene said the more deeply you looked at a person, the more you loved them and it feels true of the nature around us. The more you see, the more there is to see. As love grows, awareness of responsibility builds thoughtfulness and the will to care for surroundings. Artists guide public noticing, help focus attention where it matters and more artists are pointing to environmental issues.

Our continuity with our environment is inseparable but unconsidered in modern self-isolation. The technological interface between people and the surrounding world reduces the interdependent complexity of the ecosystem that supports us to one flat screen. With everything reduced and isolated, made uniform in that single frame, it can distort perspective and minimize the power to amaze. Nature is real and it is powerful. You have only to see the tree branch growing from the side of a concrete wall to feel its ability to recover the planet with life. It’s time to be more cooperative, to be part of something real that gets all the senses involved. There’s no price on a breeze, but if we take the time to pay attention, it’s among the most beautiful sensations available. But even our breezes are under attack. A recent BBC report detailed new studies that show that air pollution impairs cognitive processes.

It shows student performance dropping on the most polluted days, as well as impaired judgment and higher crime., not just in urban areas, where the winds converge in New England also measure high, recipients of all the industry along the way from two directions. To ignore this is to cultivate ignorance.

It’s encouraging to see people distancing themselves from their phones, getting involved in real life and not the escapist fantasies devised for profit. Don’t buy it. Get to know the planet that’s always been there for you, and be with the earth, today.