A very brief thought today.
I’m not going to point fingers or try to assign fault for this current crisis we’re experiencing. Was it people or bats or open markets or environmental pressures or politics or just plain ol’ ignorance and bad luck.
The world is a complex place and human history has always ebbed and flowed between times of relative peace and safety to times of crisis and natural disaster—be it floods, famines, storms, droughts, earthquakes, or disease.
So you’re not going to hear some overly simplistic talking points from me. Talking points rarely, if ever, describe the world as it truly exists. But what I will say is something much more personal.
Whenever a crisis or natural disaster strikes near me it shakes me, at least for a time, out of my insulated life, my illusions of control, and reminds me once again that we don’t simply live near nature but rather, we live in nature. If a humble microbe can shut down every human economy on this planet, I am reminded that our lives, our civilization, only continues by nature’s leave.
The poet Theodore Roethke (pronounced - Ret-kee) once said, “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”
So, the only thought I have to offer you today is that I want to be as conscientious about my relationship with nature as I can possibly be. I love this place. I love the birds, the bees, the trees, the ocean, the mountains, the blue skies, the fresh air. I want to learn to better work with it, not against it, because it happens to be where I live … and where I intend, with its permission, to continue to build myself a beautiful life.
Stay safe everyone. Get outside and notice some birds this week.