I started this weekend by talking about the concept of displacement. Displacement is what happens whenever any creature on planet earth makes for itself a dwelling. Something that was there before gets moved aside. A gopher digs a hole and soil is displaced. A beaver builds a dam and the stream is displaced. We build our homes and they displace. And yet somehow both the gopher and the beaver have found some kind of synergy with the world around them while we have not.In my thinking that doesn’t mean humankind is some kind of disease, or that we don’t somehow have the right to be here. Such views set humans apart from the world when in fact we are a product of this world. Of course we have a right to be here. As much as anyone or anything does. But we also have to look at ourselves honestly and soberly and accept that when it comes to the natural world and our brand of displacement, we have a well earned reputation for being the proverbial bull in the china shop. I think that’s a fitting description because, like the bull, for a very long time we were not conscious of the consequences of our movements or just how fragile everything around us was. And even now, like the bull, I believe most of us have absolutely no intention to do damage to our world. The difference between us and the bull is now we are beginning to realize how fragile everything is. And unlike the bull, if we choose to we can stop breaking things.So why do we break things? Again, I have to disagree with many of my fellow nature lovers on this. I don’t think we break things because there are too many of us, or because there’s not enough room for us. And I don’t think it’s because were naturally destructive. I think we break things because we’re running from something. Or more to the point, being chased by something. You and I both know what that is. Right now, all across the western world, Easter Sunday celebrations are retelling a story of a triumph over death in the hope that we too will somehow defeat death.Death is chasing us—it’s not really, but that’s how it feels—and we are running for our lives. Have you ever noticed how much collateral damage takes place during a chase scene in a movie? Now, if a villain comes to town and starts destroying things, it’s a crime. But when the hero is literally running for their life we allow it. If you are running for your life all bets are off, the rules are suspended, and it doesn’t matter what messes get made along the way. That’s us. You can vilify us and call us greedy or arrogant or selfish. Ok, those charges will probably stick. But deeper than that, I think we’re just nervous and scared and running.If I’m right then humanity’s problem with nature is not environmental. It’s existential. It’s spiritual. Our problem is with death. Maybe we’ll solve it one day, but to be honest I don’t think that’ll happen before my time here expires. So how do I deal with death? I live. I live while I’m alive and every week I encourage you to do the same. I live and I try to live in the most excellent way possible. Not running for my life but embracing my life.And this is what I’ve found to be true … When you try to live that way—to fully live every moment as much as you can—suddenly even the smallest of things matter. Sunrises and sunsets matter. Doing things excellently matters. Smiles matter. Tears matter. Small kindnesses matter. Things like trees and birds and bees matter. And because so much matters, you find yourself holding the world more carefully. Causing less collateral damage. Less displacement.The philosopher Alain de Button put it this way, “We owe it to the fields that our houses will not be the inferiors of the virgin land they have replaced. We owe it to the worms and the trees that the buildings we cover them with will stand as promises of the highest and most intelligent kinds of happiness.”“The most intelligent kinds of happiness.” I am of the belief that we can live in synergy with our world if we choose to...
