Image by tipiro via Flickr
New Years is in a few days. I’ve thought about what the world needs at this point to right itself and what I can do to help.
The world needs for members of the human race to shake off the stupor of a media induced need to over consume.
The world needs for each person to take control of his or her own actions and take responsibility for the consequences of those actions.
The world needs for humans to recognize their power to create and destroy.
The world needs for humans to realize that electronics and cheap fast food are not a birth right.
The world needs for humans to realize that we are the problem, therefore, we are also the solution.
If you feel like you are living on a runaway train, you are. Our culture has created an unsustainable status quo that the rest of the world is trying to emulate. The result will be death of our planet. More habitat will be lost. More toxins will be produced and expelled into the environment. More trash will pile up. We will lose more species. Nature will lose so much of herself that she will forget how she used to be. We will never be able to get back to what we once had.
Technology is feeding on nature. If we think more technology can get us out of this situation, we are mistaken. More technology means more consumption of natural resources which means more death of the very system that sustains all life on the planet. The answer is to realize we are on a runaway train. If we do not figure out a way to jump off or stop it, we will crash and die. This is the inevitable result of our current course.
You can start this very minute to make a difference. Stop what you are doing and ask yourself if you have all of your basic needs fulfilled. The answer for every single person on the planet will be no! Our basic need for survival is being undermined. We do not feel safe. If you think that this kind of global insecurity will not have repercussions, you are mistaken. People are reacting to this fear. They are looking for ways to fulfill their need for security in an insecure world. The problem is, they are looking to fulfill their need by consuming. They look to money as a means of security, but no amount of money is going to save you from polluted air, water and food. Money will not you bring you peace of mind. Money and goods will only accelerate the runaway train on its current trajectory.
If you do not feel healthy, peaceful, hopeful and connected, what can you do to create that frame of mind? The first part is a not doing. Quell your impulse to reach out to buy one more gadget. Quell your impulse to put more food and drink in your mouth. Quell you impulse to blame someone else for the state of your life and the condition of this planet. Once you have quelled your culturally programmed impulses, you can begin to take true action. Think about what you really want in your life, what you are truly missing. Now do one small action with complete awareness of what you are doing and what you hope for the result to be. It can be a very small action. The most important part is that you be aware of the need you are trying to fulfill and how the action that you are consciously undertaking is going to help you fulfill that need.
Even if you spend your time in a state of not doing, you are doing the planet a great service. It is better to not do, than to do mindlessly. Acting mindlessly is what has gotten us and our planet into this trouble. Give everyone a break and do nothing for a while, maybe a long while.
