What’s This World Coming To?

Here’s some interesting  insights from Mike Biltonen (my darling husband), about the state of the planet we all share. Mike is a passionate fruit farmer and serious about local food security.

I love Earth. I mean I really love this bright blue shiny ball of currently semi-inhabitable soil, water, and air. But it’s going to Hell in a hand-basket faster than I can say Fukushima.

Food. We produce more food for more people than we ever have in the history of, well, time. Yet, we still have starving people all over the globe (including your own backyard) and can’t seem to get them the food they so dearly need to just make it to tomorrow. We commit massive amounts of acreage across the globe to the production of soybeans, corn, and other “commodities” so we can grow animals to feed people cheap hamburgers at McDeath. If we commited this acreage growing vegetables and fruits, we could so easily alleviate global warming and starvation in one fell swoop. Of course, getting the food to the people that are starving would require an act of compassion from the so-called Powers to make sure the food could actually get to where it needs to go. Meanwhile, we’re criminalizing the production of food in our frontyards because gardens can’t be mowed.

Water. There are only a few things that living organisms need in order survive, fresh water is one of them. Yet, we seem to keep shitting in our bed to collect a few scheckles from the, a-hem, Powers that be. Fracking is a global disaster. It is a disaster that is more frightening than pesticide and fertilizer runoff into creeks and rivers; more frightening than the depletion of the once massive aquifers; more frightening than the pollution that occurs in oceans and seas. BP? Fukushima? They’re nothing compared to the companies you’ve never heard of – Apache, Devon, Cabot, Range Resources – that are building the equivalent of many Fukushimas across the face of North America. Thanks goodness that many nations are outlawing fracking. But here in the good old US, money talks and bullshit walks – welcome to the new world order (once, GWB never really knew what he was talking about). Why with all of renewable alternatives we have access to would anyone (and, yes, I am talking to you) allow fracking to even be a topic of conversation today?

Air. You thought we solved air pollution with the Clean Air Act? Well, we got rid of the smog that riddled many of this country’s big cities, that’s for sure. But the real danger lies in what we can’t see. We left fracking above, so let’s just start right back up there. Not only does fracking destroy your water, it’ll destroy the air you breathe too. Again, there’s only so much of that wonderful stuff you suck into your lungs thousands of times each day, why muck it up? But the assault on air quality only starts there, it doesn’t end anywhere soon. If you’ve seen pictures of major Chinese cities you’ve seen the smog that comes from the totally uncontrolled factories there, too. The US was smart; it pushed the manufacturing that casued the great pollution fo the 20th century overseas and now you don’t have to see or breathe it. But it does affect you. And me, for one, I’d rather see what I am breathing than not know. We still have plenty of air pollution in the US and fracking and other non-renewable energy companies are the source of the problem.

And I could go on and on.

The fact is that we’re doing so many things to destroy the planet in ways we’d never imagined. I mean, for starters, can you imagine the lack of response to the Fukushima disaster. I mean JAPAN  KILLED THE ENTIRE PACIFIC OCEAN! And yes we’ll find a way out of this disaster too.

The thing that I’ve never been able to understand is why we (i.e., humans) don’t get that the real problem is that there’s too many of us. And I don’t mean Americans. Please believe what you want to believe. But as the world’s human population heads towards 11 billion at the end of this century, we left behind a long time ago the ideal population level. Never mind who’s number you believe. The fact is that the ideal human carrying capacity for the planet was closer to a few million than a few billion. Our species uses more resources than all the other species combined. And we pollute their waters, destroy their air, decimate their habitat, leaving no room or resources for ourselves much less all the other species that depend on this same spinning ball of blue.

I am not sure what it will take for us to realize the errors of our ways. One might’ve thought that we’d figure things out, but, no, we haven’t. Not Hiroshima, not Chernobyl, not Fukushima, not the multitude of smaller eco disasters can set us down a different path. The only true salvation for Earth is going to be disaster that affects us very directly and brings us down to size. Oh we’ll survive, but like the dinosaurs

 

Namasté

I started studying yoga with a friend in the mid 1990s. She was my guru and taught me a wonderful routine that we did together on a weekly basis. I enjoyed it so much that I started to do the routine on my own as well, and practiced at least five times a week for many years. Although, I felt it was very relaxing and a passive exercise, when my body was put to the test, it was very strong. I had no idea how strong I was until I lived on top of a mountain in Maine with no electricity, while managing a wildlife sanctuary for the National Audubon Society. It was a very physical position and my body responded very well. I continued to practice yoga on the mountaintop by a lake – it was perfect.

Over the years, since then, yoga has come in and out of my life. I’ve taken a class here and there, practiced on my own but it did not compare to the times I practiced with my friend. She was an excellent teacher and I can still hear her voice when I do some poses. The last time I really practiced yoga was when I was pregnant. Thank goodness, as it prepared my body for 36 hours of labor, 6 hours of pushing and 3 hours of crowning. I don’t think I could have survived it all so well without the yoga practice, to condition my body.

So that was ten years ago. Sure, I’ve practiced it here and there but just could not discipline myself and devote my time to a scheduled practice. However, this fall, I knew I needed to focus on myself. Life was pulling me in too many directions except towards my health. Even though, I never really cared to go to yoga “classes,” I signed up for a trial package at the Yoga School in Ithaca. I paid $20 for 10 days and could go to as many classes as my body could handle. This was a great opportunity for me to experience different teachers and different level classes. I loved and hated it. My body just wasn’t as flexible and a bit more tired than it was 20 years ago. Regardless, I knew I needed to do this on a regular basis, so I bought a three month pass. I was committed and felt that it was what I really needed to do to commit to myself.

The one thing different about this school from the others I had attended over the years is that they teach you more than the poses; they teach you about the yoga lifestyle and how to incorporate it into your daily life. In the past, the teachers greeted the students with the phrase: Namasté. I never thought about it, I assumed it was similar to peace or shalom. But at this school, the teacher ends the class with a lesson or thought about connecting with our needs and the world’s needs or something like that. Then they say, “Namasté, the light in me honors the light in you, thank you.” I was just blown away; I loved this thought and started to look further into it.

I found that the gesture “Namasté” represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us and it is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another. Namasté is derived from Sanskrit, Nama means bow, as means I, and te means you. Therefore, Namasté literally means “bow me you” or “I bow to you.” What a wonderful idea! Wouldn’t it be an amazing if we all simply acknowledge the spirit in each other and celebrate we are all ONE CONSCIOUSNESS!

I never really “got it” before, but am so grateful that I finally did.

Namasté, the light in me honors the light in you!