The World We Love

Painting by Steven Kenny

What are we doing to the world? Do we even notice what we are doing, or are we too busy creating our useless products and chasing money? Species are going extinct at an alarming rate, bird and insect populations are falling off a cliff, climate change is threatening the whole globe and our “leaders” are shuffling their feet and giving us nothing but lip service and platitudes.

We know they won’t take action because they are blind and deaf to the obvious. And this state of affairs has been going on for thirty years or longer.

A lack of vision is lethal. The proof is everywhere right now.

It won’t be long before we nail ourselves to the cross we are busy crucifying the rest of the world on. This path leads inevitably back to us. We are not exempt from the travails of the natural world. We are an integral part of nature, not separate or above it.

That’s an obvious statement, but I just want to say it.

I grew up in the country with land and animals and space, but I also grew up in a culture heavily influenced by Puritanism, which is a mindset that is at odds with nature. It’s really a fear of nature. It’s an attempt to control and suppress it, kill it, banish it, “purify” it.