Earth Day- Back to a Bigger Picture

Having one earth day is just a way to remind ourselves to think of the earth every day, to consider how much we depend on it and how we can contribute to healing some of the damage we’ve caused. Human self-centeredness blocks consideration of how deeply embedded in the earth’s system we are, and how we can operate in harmony with it rather than be led by the current attitude of exploitation that dominates our view of nature. Richard Powers’ book, “The Overstory” describes the intricate connections of the natural world starting with trees and the efforts to save them. His book is an example of necessary creative enlightenment that can show with a story how much bigger the picture is than our self-serving fraction of it. Consciousness is growing in relation to the ecosystem that supports us. We can’t exist independent of the scene of our lives. That starts with our home and branches into day to day activities, all surrounded by the movement of events and cloud of ideas that guide our current worldview. We are immersed in influences we don’t see but show in our behavior.

When Eldridge Cleaver said competition is the law of the jungle and co-operation the law of civilization, we hadn’t yet reached the depth of the jungle where winning and being on top have become the dominant values and bling the only currency. You don’t even have to be on top if you look like you’re on top, because in the day of social media, only the image matters, to look like the winners. Only the screen is seen. This creates a culture of comparison that undermines the confidence of anyone drawn into it as they adopt values that can’t satisfy. The outer image is such a thin skin over individual depth of possibility. In his book,  “The Evolving Self“, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said that the development of the individual self could be as exciting a writing a symphony. The brain’s frontal lobe isn’t mature until 30 and the brain changes and develops with everything we do throughout life. This fact alone should be reason to pay attention to what is filling it. Do you want circuits sculpted by angry social media? We wouldn’t eat poison on purpose. Why would we poison our future with tendencies toward anger, intolerance and judgment?

Why should anyone measure themselves by another person’s standards?  Only that person can match that ideal. Having a goal of winning leaves too much out. There’s no opportunity to explore the unique qualities each individual possesses. Making choices to follow what you love and care about will develop the brain you want. Including the environment we share could be the beginning of a cooperative future. It’s time to crawl out of the jungle.