Our birthplace, Earth, is an incredibly rare planet. So far, it is the only planet we have found that can boast of such an unfathomable abundance and diversity of life. It is a great cosmic miracle that we have been so richly blessed to call it our home. We are, or at least we should be, its primary stewards. And yet …
Returning from her walk with our dog Jazz, Colleen joined me on the deck. While we stood there quietly looking out over the straits towards Mount Baker, a few blocks away, the sound of chainsaws obliterated the beautiful bird-song that we so love to hear.
I asked her, “What are they cutting down?”
Her voice cracking from a deep well of anger and sadness, she replied, “You know the house that is being re-built; they are cutting down all the big trees around it.”
She then broke into tears. As I tried to comfort her, she said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”
“Nothing is wrong with you,” I replied. ” You are entitled to your feelings and you are right, it is very sad and it is a waste.”
As the words left my mouth, in my heart I knew that the real question is: What’s wrong with us? The problem lies in the lack of tears, not in the shedding of them.
These trees were not diseased. They were not damaged or dangerous. They were healthy large beautiful sentinels and home to many species of birds. There was nothing wrong with them except that they were in the way. A half an acre … a few trees … just in the way. Never mind that they were many decades old and majestically graced the landscape.
A tree does not struggle when we cut it down. It just simply falls. If we were in the way, and something wanted to cut us down, it would immediately be clear that there was a steep price to pay. With trees, and our environment, we don’t realize the cost of our folly until it’s much too late.
Oh I know, many would say, “Come on now Gil, what’s wrong with cutting a few trees down here and there?”
The same thing that’s wrong with placing just a few oil rigs here and there, or dumping effluent into the ocean here and there. ‘Here and there’ ultimately ends up being ‘everywhere’.
A few thousand miles south of where we live, the Gulf of Mexico is in crisis. Those who live along its shores — humans and all other creatures — will initially suffer the most. Why? For oil to fuel our economic engine, for greed and for an unforgivable lack of imagination.
It didn’t have to be this way. We are endowed with more than sufficient intelligence to have developed clean energy sources long ago. But we bent to the will of the economic monster and closed our eyes to it. Now, we will pay the price for our indifference and the price will be exceedingly high. The price of our calloused hearts will be even higher. Apparently, wisdom is not a virtue to which we are easily predisposed.
It is so easy to take what we have for granted. All of us do it to some extent. At some point, we all experience the pain of loss. Part of our grieving process is wishing that we had spent more time noticing what we once had. More time loving and connecting. More time being thankful and less time thinking about our own needs. More time giving back for what we were so freely given.
And so, I ask again, What’s wrong with us? What will it take to wake us up?
What happens when we … are in the way?
Photo Credits
Oil Rig Fire – Photo courtesy of the US Coast Guard via SkyTruth’s flickr photostream
Earth – Photo courtesy of the NASA Goddard Photo and Video’s flickr photostream
Mount Baker Feature Photo and Tree Thumbnail © Gil Namur
Recent Gil Namur Articles:
- Look After the Little Things
- Promenade
- Close Encounters Of The Google Kind
- Always In This Heart
- A Dance of Delight
Hi Gil,
An extremely late comment on”what’s wrong with us”. Found it while blindly stumbling around the www. I was so moved by your wife’s response! I have suffered debilitating clinical depressions since age 12. Done years of therapy etc. spent many years in India, guided by Buddhist philosophy I believe now that my “mental illness” is a symptom of a human soul still open enough to examine “what is”. I can now identify the cause of the deep well of grief & alienation I regularly experience. I passionately love our planet and the myriad of life forms in it. I cannot be OK while greed poisons our earthly paradise, while we destroy to consume and consume till we are sick in the soul. I believe many good people simply cannot bear to face the devastation of our earth. But I don’t want to travel blind, I feel the earth in my ageing body because I am a conscious part of Her. I don’t want to shut Her out. She also transports me with the beauty of our planet & all who dwell upon her. Thanks for sharing your moment on the deck two years ago, like ripples in a pond it continues to resonate – even on the other side of the world! Bless you & your wife & of course Jazz. Sent with Love, Jane.
Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
I am sorry to hear that you suffer from depression and hope that there is much light in your life these days. I have some friends who suffer this as well and I know what a hard road it can be. I just try to be an ear and an understanding friend.
I really appreciate when you say “we destroy to consume” … so very true. You might also appreciate this piece.
http://lifeasahuman.com/2010/mind-spirit/inspirational/the-re-birth-of-excellence/
Again, I thank you for your message and send warm thoughts your way. Jazz is sitting next to me wagging his tail 😉
You can meet him here – http://www.synaptici.com/2009/jazz-dog/ – he’ll put a smile on your face for certain!
All my best wishes to you.
Gil
Earth is definitely a unique planet. Hopefully we protect it so it stays that way!
Hi Timothy!
Sorry to be so slow replying! Thanks so much for your comment.
I am indeed familiar with Zeitgeist but I appreciate you thinking to mention it 🙂
I wish you the best of luck as well!
Cheers
GIl
Im glad I found this article so I can share something with you that I feel you would enjoy.
first let me say a few thing…
within this world all the bad around has become “common place”
“its just the way it is”
while people like you. and I and so many other refuse to believe that there can never be an answer.
never be a course of action.
and never be proper communication between people in order to solver these issues.
These are not accidental complications, but expected atrocities due to the nature of our system…
Critical observation reveals that our current system is direct conflict with our health, progression, and sustainability…..the idea is to create a much more human society and to form policy based on scientific analysis of what is best for all life in balance on the planet, rather than on presumed moral grounds. We need to understand that this world can be a much better place.
google The Zeitgeist Movement to read more about what i am talking about Im sure you wont be disappointed.
i wish you the best of luck my friend
Dear Gil,
Your post resonated in a big way with me. It brought back memories of the brutal murder of an Elm that must have been a few hundred years old. It was a magnificent tree, its diameter was almost as big as a table for 6 and its canopy was incredibly huge. It was the only Elm around in the valley and it literally reigned in its center.Sightseers would frequently stop their car to admire its unbelievable majesty.
When some of the topmost smaller branches started dying, it became evident that something was wrong with it. I spoke to the land owner, drawing his attention to it. Specialists said it could be treated with pruning and special ”injections”. The owner doubted it would work and did not feel the the cost was justified ! After a year, as more of the crown was dying and that the disease became evident, he was compelled to bring it down. No chainsaw was big enough to reach its center, yet they cut wedges and tried to weaken its basis. They strung ropes and pulled but the tree did not… would not budge!!!
In the end, a very big back hoe was brought in. Its bucket was extended upward to reach as high as it could and it pushed so hard as to lift its front end. It worked long and very hard to break the back of this magnificent being. The tree resisted as long as it possibly could…it just did not want to die. In the end after a half a day of repeated assaults it fell… with a horrible, ripping sound. The valley resonated with the sound of its fall…an eerie silence followed, as if every ”thing” in the valley kept a moment of silence for its passing.
To answer your question, I believe the ”us” you speak of, has developed an addiction to materialism and in so doing has eroded or lost its spirituality. The need to have ever more than what is reasonable has led humans to loose equilibrium in their lives.
Where indeed is our ethical and moral compass? Who now teaches values and morals to new generations ?
Allow me to finish with this quote from Albert Einstein ( 1954)
”A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
Hi Carol,
Thanks so much for your insightful comment and also the great Einstein quote.
It is indeed a sad thing that you described .. and so needless.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Gileeee
great article Gil!…a man after my own heart… kindred spirits, you and i:)
I welled up in compassion for colleen (and the trees of course) when i read this for i feel this way all too often.
It both sickens and saddens me to no end at the huge blinders people seem to have about the choices they make for such self-indulgent reasons without even a second thought. We as a species are falling so incredibly short of our stewardship and that most definitely has to change…and like yesterday!!
If there is one being on this planet that i have THE most reverence for, it’s trees. I have such a kinship with them it breaks my heart every time i see even a single one meet it’s demise.
namaste
~kylen
Hey Kylen 🙂
I suspect .. in the big picture, if I have read them right … they (trees) hope and pray for us … everyday!
Would .. that we would only hear them ….
namaste to you sister!
Gileeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Gil
Well said, well said. As was once said, we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone. People have to be more aware of what’s around them, just stop what you are doing for a moment and take a look around you. Indifference is killing us. Great article Gil and might I add, a great site.
All the best
Hi Ron,
Thanks so much 🙂
Nice to see you in here. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Thanks also for your nice words about Life As A Human … I know the whole team and all the authors will really appreciate that!
Cheers,
Gil
Gil,
you gentle, sweet human of a man. I know what is wrong with it, and I have shed so many tears myself. Sometimes daily. It’s heartbreaking.
Thanks for writing this, I’ve thought this very things….
give your wife a hug from me and tell her I’m so sorry.
Hi Mary 🙂
Thank you! I will pass your words on to Colleen who loves your writing, just as I do!
Have a great week!
Cheers,
Gileeeeeeee