A new paradigm of survival
The most damaging, destructive, and dangerous myth humans might ever have created is the one of individual survival.
Dear friends:
When I scan the news, I’m often struck by the contradictions in the headlines. War and violence stand side-by-side with new high-tech toys and celebrity obsessions. Relatively dry, yet important, economic information is buried behind click-bait titles. The latest in the arts is presented in categories distinct from the latest political action (or scandal).
This is not a rant on “media,” which after all is far too diverse for any singular pronouncements of its strengths or failures.
It’s an observation of our human engagement in the world at this moment in time. We do not seem to know who we are, what we want, or what is important to us.
I often walk our neighborhood in the evenings, noticing similar contradictions. Lush green, manicured lawns with no one in them, surround homes where large screens attract all the attention, and paved driveways show the most signs of use. Recycling bins stand nearly empty next to overflowing garbage containers stuffed with potentially recyclable materials.
This is not a rant, either, on the hypocritical nature of we humans. I find myself deeply curious about what these contradictions reveal. Why don’t we turn our screens off and walk barefoot through the grass that absorbs our money, water, and time? Why do we spend our innovation capital inventing “metaverses” when the real world around us suffers so profoundly?
Recently, in a book borrowed from my dear mother, I read this passage:
We too are nature. Unsunderable….The belief that nature is an Other, a separate realm defiled by the unnatural mark of humans, is a denial of our own wild being. Emerging as they do from the evolved mental capacities of primates manipulating their environment, the spew of liquids from the paint factory, and the city documents that plan Denver’s growth are as natural as the patter of cottonwood leaves, the call of the young dipper to its kin, or the cliff swallow’s nest.
Whether all these natural phenomena are wise, beautiful, just, or good are different questions. Such puzzles are best resolved by beings who understand themselves to be nature.
Haskell, D.G. (2017). The Songs of Trees. Viking: pp. 177-179 (emphasis added)
We have, as a species, tried to sunder the “unsunderable:” removing ourselves from the equations of nature in order to dominate it. Or pretend to. When we recall our true origin and dwelling place, not with nature but within it, part of it, we begin to see opportunities to heal the damages inflicted by our belief in a false duality.
The paradigm of “preserving” versus “exploiting” nature places us somehow outside of the natural world, and so is built on a lie. It locks us into a superficial struggle that does not address the root cause.
Nature is not a beautiful thing to stare at and then go back to our screens and machines. Nature is our blood and bone, cells and organs. It is the dripping relic of ancient carcasses that fuels our vehicles, the metals that charge the batteries of our devices. We do not preserve nature by taking it offline, somehow. Everything we use every day is a result of the interaction of our evolved primate brains with materials in our world.
The most damaging, destructive, and dangerous myth humans might ever have created is the one of individual survival. To survive and thrive, we need a different paradigm: one of becoming increasingly conscious of our interdependence, our choices, and their impact on ourselves, on generations of humans to come, and on the planet which is our only home.
Sent with gratitude for journeying together.