THE NATURE OF BELONGING

While Hannah is clearly an Earthling, it is not clear to me that Carter and I are 100 percenters. I know that some critics have asked me what planet I'm from...

It is past my bedtime, and I never write at night. Writing is, for me, a morning thing. But I made a promise to myself to try and write a bit each day (and post more…), so here it is. And perhaps it is odder than usual because of the late hour.

I’ve been questioning whether humans belong to—and on—this Earth. This is why I am asking myself this question: It appears obvious to me that everything alive on this planet—except us—seems to understand this most basic and necessary law of life:

Don’t wreck the ground you depend on.

Whether by design or intention, life on Earth—except for us—seems to get along quite well. Every living creature—but us—seems to have a naturally built in mechanism of some sort that keeps them from becoming the destroyers of the universe. Everything adds to the whole—but us. Squirrels and birds spread seeds around and keep the Earth garden growing. Buzzards and beetles and opossums keep the grounds clear of dead and decayed stuff. Fish feed water plants and water plants feed fish. Beavers take care of everybody. All life contributes to life—but us.

At WildCare today, I realized that every creature in our care at this moment it time is there because of some unfortunate run in with us: Fishing line, power lines, cars, lawn mowers, our cats, our poisons, our traps, our pollution.

We come onto the scene, and we seem to know no other way than to wreck things, pollute things, pervert things, and use up things. That does not seem to be the way I see Nature work. So, are we really a part of Nature?

Some native people say that we came from the Star People. Not to go all ufologist about this, but it seems to me that we behave as though we came from some place with other basic rules, or original instructions. We don’t seem to have any natural, built in ability to just get along here with all the rest of our “neighbors.” Hell, we don’t even know how to get along with air and water without wrecking them, let along polar bears, wolves, bugs, or frogs.

Spirit, wherever you are, please put some reins on us, because we seem incapable as a species of reining ourselves. Spirit, if you made us out of the very clay of this precious place, is it your intention for us that we serve as the destroyers? Spirit, if we came from the Star People, were they really such a bunch of rude, greedy clods?

Inquiring minds—mine, at least—want to know…