Late Night Thoughts

This strange set of circumstances in the world today makes me think that this is reaction to a larger problem. I have never been a spiritual person; never raised with religion in my life. I have always been the worker bee, trying to eke out a living while staying reasonably healthy and happy. This virus, that has stopped almost everything man made on Earth, has changed everyone's lives. We all have stopped being physically social, stopped spending money, stopped running aimlessly for our careers, stopped traveling. The world as the general population sees it, has stopped, but if we all stop and open our eyes, it hasn't stopped.

Is it because we appreciate the moments outside, doing our essential shopping, or just getting some fresh air, that we notice even the little snippets of nature in our concrete jungle? It seems the cherry blossoms are fuller and more fragrant this season. The magnolias are more colourful, the tulips and daffodils are more abundant. The local bird population is singing louder. The air seems cleaner, the weather seems better, the water around us is cleaner. 

Recently I hurt my left thumb, stretched it too far backwards and it has been nagging me for awhile. Decades ago I damage my right knee playing basketball, tearing my ACL, one of the bands stabilizing my joint. In both cases, the nagging pain from the injuries resulted in slowing my physical abilities and I needed to brace the joints to help heal the injuries. I had to adapt to a new way of moving, my thumb and knee, to assist in healing the damage joints. Similarly I see the Earth doing the same thing to Mankind, making us all stop to heal what we have damaged.

The planet can only sustain a certain amount of damage, and as it is a living thing just like all of us, Earth needs to heal. Humankind as a species, has overwhelmed the planet, using all of its fossil fuels, polluting its atmosphere and waters, clear cutting its forests. When you see other species that overpopulate a certain area, usually it works out in a way that famine and disease over rules and depletes the numbers to a more reasonable size. Mankind as a species had stuck our little dirty finger in the Petri dish and screwed up the experiment.

Humans are curious creatures, always looking for a more efficient way, creating new tools, to make life easier. The saying shouldn't be "curiosity killed the cat". When early man made a tool to help him hunt, he was able to kill more for his species. Creation of fire changed how we ate our kill. The wheel helped us build bigger stronger buildings. Machinery helped us industrialize the world. Inventions all to better our species, remarkable in fact, but incredibly destructive to everything that keeps this planet a living thing.

Killing complete species for our consumption, burning huge expanses of forests and jungles, erecting more buildings and creating more cities for our expanding population, production of all kinds of stuff for consumers to purchase; all damaging the Earth, while helping increase the numbers of people on the Earth. 

The planet is finally stretched too thin because of our self-centered species. The ligaments have snapped and it's time to stop and brace the injury. Earth has had it with us. We are the pests on this planet, not the pests we choose because they are bothersome. We ruin the atmosphere with our air pollution, Earth burns our skin, changes the weather and burns our forests, ruining out homes, worsening the atmosphere. Differing"tribes" of humans fight over politics and religion, killing each other off, creating more and differing weaponry, both chemical and biological, all to kill each other. In the meantime, mistakes are made from these chemical and biological inventions, resulting in new viruses, super-bugs and other crazy stuff. Now we need to clean up that mess to survive. New vaccines, to make our species even more immune... All to propel our species more! We are seriously looking at living on other planets - in case we kill the Earth? What are we doing?

So now this virus had made us stop, as a species, and rethink our future. The planet has given us a little present, and whether we take it and enjoy it, or we literally take it apart and put it back together the way we like it, is up to us. I believe Earth is now telling us to STOP! We are all going to break the world we live in, all of the surroundings of flora and fauna, the air we breathe, the water we drink. Mankind has done this and the only way to heal it is to STOP!  This is what I believe now. Stop thinking about an easier, faster way of doing things, stop downloading apps playing sounds of rain hitting the leaves of a tree, stop judging your neighbor because of his nationality. Just stop... Don't drive your car to the corner store, don't buy new clothes you don't need, stop worrying about whether your mobile phone is better than your friend's. 

The general reaction right now seems to be positive. The world is reacting mostly in a lovey-dovey way, governments giving out money to people who can't pay for their bills. People respecting the front line workers, the minimum wage class seems to be the most depended on in these times - cashiers, food service workers, janitorial staff, delivery drivers - the invisible sector of the industrialized world. Countries around the world are caring about other countries, people all over the world are helping each other. Each country has been hit by this virus and everyone is helping each other. Let's keep doing this, helping and healing. Let's not look inside but look out and see everyone as individuals. The world is so worried about getting the economy going again. I think we all should just stop thinking monetarily, and throw money out. There is a better way of doing this, rather than the way we are doing it now. Money doesn't make the world go round, it makes it STOP.

So smell the roses, listen to the birds, bake some bread, make your own masks to wear. We will survive this, we will lose someone we love, we will learn to be better. We can't help planet Earth heal without healing ourselves. 

Okay that's it for me tonight. I'm tired now...