I find myself living in a tension. I love the advances in technology. The wonderful vehicles that are available out there. The great PCs, the TVs, and the myriads of toys that we can add to our collection.
At the same time I look at the state that our planet is in. We are setting ourselves on a self destruct path. Everything is manufactured for the landfill. Everything has such a short life. Nothing is built to last. That is only the only the beginning of the problem. We are so dependant on electricity, fossil fuel and other things that are ruining our planet.
We mine everywhere and everything, leaving the area desolate and useless. We as consumers have bought in to the idea that buying a cheap item to throw away when we are done with it is a good thing. We no longer value our possessions, since they are disposable.
200 years ago, we lived off the land. We needed the land, we took care of the land. The little farm that you had was all you needed to make a go at life. It's true that the treats of life were few, but what you had you appreciated, you took care of and you fixed.
In our day and age, even those living on limited budgets, have the luxuries of life. TV, computers, video games, radios. It's true that we have some people in our midst that do not benefit of these things, but as a society, we do not understand them, we blame them for their own misery.
The point being that when one of our toys break, we stick it at the curb and buy a new one. Who has ever gotten a microwave fixed? If it break, you throw it out. Why fix it when it is going to be cheaper to buy a new one.
You hear about global warming, water table being contaminated, huge mining areas that can no longer be used for anything, the ozone layer, nutritional value of food not being exactly what they used to be. Makes you wonder where everything is going.
This is where I find myself, between enjoying the toys, I know that it sounds shallow, and wanting to get back to our roots where we honored the planet and gave thanks to God for our bountiful crops, that we got by the sweat of our brow. It would take the entire infrastructure to collapse to save this planet. Nothing like facing certain doom.
1 comment:
A big part of the problem is that socio-economic realities have shifted irreversibly. In some ways this has been a tremendous boon to humanity, but unfortunately at a terrible cost to our environment. David Suzuki has some really good starting points for us to consider. In many ways we can't go back. Subsistance farming is no longer a viable reality, and in a sense it is reflective of our desire to flee the immensity of the crisis.
Christianity is about hope, even hope in the midst of the ecological nightmare our species faces in this hour. Not a retreat from the world, but rather a protest lived in the midst of the world. Our whole lives declaring the good news of God's Kingdom. We need to take those utopian dreams - the nice little farm with the picket fence and all the real needs of life met in full - and bring that to bear on the injustice of our present economic, social and political reality. It will lead us into the right questions to ask and show us the right doors to pry open. It will also lead us to question our own choices in the midst of this world - what toys can I choose to do without? What creature comforts are not worth the cost to the environment? What expenses are worth shouldering to give our children a future?
You are in a good place Steve, it might not seem like it though. It is the place I only hope more people come to, because it will take a massive shift in consciousness if we are going to turn this thing around. Some respectable ecologists are telling us that we have about ten years to left to get our acts together. I hope they are wrong, but I want to live like they are right.
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