The Wrong Lilies

The Wrong Lilies

Friday, May 27, 2011

It just isn’t fair

When terrible disasters befall, we tend to attribute them to some sort of personal attack from Nature.  How many times do you hear someone say that an horrendous event just isn’t ‘fair’.   Perhaps this is a characteristic of the human tribe.  We try to label events with causes or reasons.  And of course there are sometimes reasons why events occur.   There is scientific evidence that our planet is experiencing warming.  Melting polar ice caps and record-setting temperatures are just a few of the unusual events many of us choose to ignore.  Then there is evidence that we as humans have been poor stewards of our earth:  denuding tropical rain forests, building on wetlands, drilling for energy carelessly, polluting our air, our rivers, our landfills.  We ignore our world unless and until something happens.  If we accept that our planet is one ecosystem, that it is conceivable that a tsunami or meltdowns in Japan or an earthquake in New Zealand or tornadoes in the American Midwest affect us all, then maybe we need to hunker down and do some serious thinking.  Maybe we need to consider using the time, energy and treasure we are now expending on making war on each other to try to make friends with Nature again.  


What can be done?   First we need to give as much help as possible to the victims of violent natural events.  Then we can start with our own individual lives and try to be more thoughtful and less wasteful.  How can we change the world if we don’t change ourselves?  We can find kindred spirits near us and join with them to help our community.  When massive rebuilding needs to be done, as it will in Joplin and Tuscaloosa and many other areas, careful planning can make for more eco-friendly systems.  We’ve known for a very long time that certain areas are prone to tornados, others prone to hurricanes, others to earthquakes.   It simply does no good to hope they won’t happen.  If we plan for the very worst, and we are now seeing the results of the very worst possibilities, all over the world, then we can be better prepared.  Is it too late?  Perhaps, perhaps not.   

When our children were small and uttered those words, “That’s not fair,” we would simply suggest that the only place one finds ‘fair’ is in the dictionary.   That’s still true.

2 comments:

  1. Very nicely done. Makes you wonder who came up with the word "fair" in the first place...

    ReplyDelete
  2. The individual who invented the word 'fair' must have been convinced the Universe cared! Fancy that.

    ReplyDelete