There are a lot of ‘truisms’ in gardening, but first and
foremost is the reality that once a leaf has turned brown, either through
neglect or change of season into winter or lack of water or absurd heat –
whatever the reason, that leaf is history.
Now, it doesn’t mean that the plant itself is gone. The plant may be dormant or may be in
temporary distress, depending on the situation and the total number of brown
leaves. But sometimes it seems as though
we find a brown leaf, don’t bother to figure out the cause and just keep
waiting for that brown leaf or those brown leaves to miraculously ‘heal’, to
resume their normal color (green or grey or whatever).
This is true in gardening but also a kind of metaphor for
other areas of our lives. And on a
larger scale, it is also true for our planet.
We can neglect this wonderful sphere we call home, expecting it to
absorb the excesses and toxins that we are dumping into the air and the oceans
and onto the soil, and expecting damaged areas to heal and revert to health,
but sooner or later, just as with an individual plant, with an individual leaf,
the damage is permanent.
It’s simple enough to find another plant, but another
planet, at least another comfortable planet, might be another story.
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