One With the Wild

In cultures impregnated with ideas of convenience - cultures that endure on commerce and the success of the monetary unit, how do we inspire awareness of the natural and physical world? Though we decorate our abodes with tributes to the natural world, though we seize images of its creatures and lend them to the abstractions of our marketing - to influence the undercurrents of our mental structures …………. we do not embrace nature, in full, with a respect that would then honor us with durable outcomes. How do we reconnect with a natural world when the fundamental unit of "success" resides in an abstract dimension? When many are 'happy as they are,' what measures can be taken to inspire those who are disconnected - to FEEL their indelible connection? When the natural world is subject to plastered layers of the 'administrativia and red tape' of human cultures, how can we protect it? It is, perhaps, ideal first - that we remember that we are NOT separate from it. That - indeed, IT is our lifeline.

Since (to a great extent) economies have moved from within the home and into complex webs that extend well beyond any individual's community , we have become disconnected from the processes and the history of our own lifestyles. Take the shirt I am wearing or the orange I am eating - for example. To have made this shirt, to have grown this orange, I would be necessarily connected to their process, their story, an understanding of the energetic and resource-input for their very existence. In participating IN that journey, I have more respect for and awareness of effort and outcome. When those processes reside outside of the home, perhaps in a small community, we can still see them and respect them in our neighbors and fellow community members. However, as these same processes have been driven farther and farther away from the household and the individual, their journey has become so obscured that it seems many, perhaps subconsciously, forget about the journey/the process altogether; but the truth can be a rather grueling reality to witness. Is that why many of us refuse to LOOK, decide to simply turn our cheek, assuming it is better to not know? If you knew how much human effort, perhaps maltreatment, oil, gas, electricity, pollution, water, etc went into bringing you that shirt or that orange, would you think differently about them? I think so. It is abrading to my spirit when I hear someone brag about how cheap something was, as though it is a baseline for some personal victory. It is, often, a sign of lack of valuation somewhere in the supply chain that (were it closer to home) I'm not certain people would accept. I remember my father playing his satellite radio and saying how well it was made. You could open the back panel and observe its base pieces - even if you'd never seen something like it, you'd be able to make some basic observations about how it might work. With economic systems that thrive on money constantly pouring in to keep them alive, demand for cheaper goods and FASTER is so high that it has become unrealistic to keep up without cutting corners. What would it be like if, instead, we spent more money on quality goods and learned to take care of them? Where along the journey of commercialism, have we lost reverence for durability? If more was paid for more durable goods, perhaps a similar net amount of money would be flowing into our 'monetary ecosystem,' with an end result of base materials that could be re-used and recycled rather than simply thrown away and replaced.

People have learned to love to spend money. The reports on how much it is predicted Americans will spend on holiday gifts this year is nauseating. I love tradition and I love gift-giving. It is the madness of waste and mindlessness that saturates this time of year that has disheartened me. Can we give the gift of improving our habits? Can we inspire others to redefine value, to encompass action and ethics over materialism. Or can the gifts we give at least honor a journey that is situated within the scope of inclusivity - of humans in the wild world - as participants and responsible parties?

Value has various meanings in the new world. Based in money, value can be determined by getting more for less. More is not always good, ethical, or of any sustainable or durable quality. Additionally, based in money, value can be leverage purchased in the form of effort, of support or protection for landscapes, ecosystems, food and medicine delivered. I'd love to hear of others' definitions of value - of moneyless systems or actions that can operate with both subtle and powerful mechanisms in society - to create change from the bottom up.