Healing Our World: Weekly Comment

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

A Quiet Little Revolution of Thought

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
-- Socrates

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make our world."
-- Buddha

Around the world, people are thinking about the need to radically change the way we interact with each other and the natural world. Readers of "Healing Our World" commentaries from around the globe commented last week about how to go on in the midst of all the pain, suffering, and environmental degradation. Together, these people, and millions more, are part of a global quiet little revolution of thought.

In the "Healing Our World" commentary posted on the Environment News Service on May 17, 2002 entitled "How Can We Possibly Go On," I reflected on the despair so many people feel in the midst of the profound environmental assaults that take place daily. Battle after battle is fought to save some of the Earth for the future, yet the attacks by greedy industry and short-sighted politicians seem endless.

Many readers responded with their own ideas about how to go on.

Vicky said, "My heart has been breaking for all of my adult life for our planet and her wild critters. I hate human beings, I hate our "tribe" more and more as time passes. I became ashamed to be human at a young age, and it only gets worse."

Caged bear on a Chinese bear bile farm (Photo courtesy Animals Asia)

Mark wrote, "Sometimes I feel like we're on a hopeless trail to nowhere as well. The information age has something to do with it. We're capable of downloading much more info than ever before and ... when we read specialized news servers that keep tossing up the negative, it can pile up for weeks and begin to feel hopeless. I keep reminding myself to break loose from the screens and phones and take a break, walk ... smell the roses, or change a diaper."

Maria in Portugal wonders if any of our actions make a difference. She says, "Do you believe that concerned citizens around the world could make a difference? I feel miserable too when I think about baby cats that die in shameful conditions, or when poor people in Africa occupy gorillas territories, or by knowing that U.S. rivers are contaminated by painkillers! This is not the world we want to [leave to] our kids, or the picture of humankind we would like ..."

Bobby in Hawaii, a sufferer of multiple chemical sensitivities, related to the grief and said, "all of the things you mentioned that sicken you literally sicken millions of us world wide on a daily basis. I, personally, live on an island that becomes smaller everyday. The constant spraying of pesticides and herbicides for the tourist industry to see 'paradise' here in Hawaii is costing us our health and access to our own community."

Golf course on Maui. About 60 tons of pesticides are used on Hawaiian golf courses each year says a U. Hawaii study. (Photo credit unknown)

Yvonne's comments reflected the despair so many feel.She said, "We do our best to live simply, we write letters, we donate to environmental groups, but we both feel in our guts that these efforts are an exercise in futility. Every time I talk myself into having a more positive attitude, I read something that implies otherwise."

"Just recently," she wrote, "I read some macrobiotic literature that described examples of our deteriorating constitutions due to our intake of excessive foods or non-foods. Such deterioration affects human behavior and human judgment. Barring a massive change in our food habits, it can only get worse."

"The scientists warn that we cannot continue our consumption habits," Yvonne wrote, "And on and on. I guess we have no choice. We have to keep trying. But, I get teary eyed when I look at my granddaughter."

Joe wrote, "All of us in the field of environmental conservation, preservation, and protection have the same feelings that you so eloquently voiced in your essay. Most of us continue with our work because to not continue would be to admit defeat."

Debora, chair of an organization that tries to prevent people from using toxic pesticides to treat head lice in children, wrote, "[We share] your rightful outrage about the diapers. It is the trusted pediatricians who are prescribing direct applications of lindane in acetone and malathion lotion as lice treatments to unsuspecting mothers for their children's scalps (the most personal of environments). Until we can stop such behavior at this most basic level, it is fair to consider that the environmental movement has yet to begin. Preventing just this one most direct insult to children can have immediate measurable positive outcomes in more ways than can be listed here."

Some people offered hope.

Claire reminds us of the power of our minds. He said, "I learned that what goes on 'out there' does not have to be going on 'in here' ... outer events do not have to entirely spoil the good feelings inside me."

Apple pickers (Photo courtesy Schoolsite)

She goes on to say, "Whether we survive as a species depends not on those who make decisions for us that we can't change, but rather on ourselves deciding what we are willing to sacrifice or not, and accepting responsibility for the decision. And fear not the outcome either way. In the absence of fear you'll find peace. I believe real compassion comes not from accepting and forgiving the shortcomings we find in others, but rather accepting and forgiving the shortcomings we find in ourselves."

Jeremy's thoughts really hit the mark. He said, "Remember, the pendulum swings. All these nasty people doing stupid things are being noticed by nicer people doing smarter things. The power of the nasty will decline. Ours is more latent, less forceful, but has on its side the power of truth, the power of nature. These truths are more profound than any nameable deities, and if everyone believed more in truth, and less in deception, Bush would melt away like the wicked witch."

"Don't forget, as the Earth gets more and more attacked, we're going to feel it," Jeremy wrote. "Thus, we need to find strength wherever we can. Once again, thank you for taking time to communicate. Your work inspires us out here, and we in turn do some inspiration. This rippling of ponds is going to make a whole lot of rough weather for the greedheads and Earth destroyers. They do not understand this, but I am beginning to figure this out. It is the only way being frustrated at many turns can be turned [into] being fulfilled, to knowing we will win, to knowing that even the tragedy must be now unfolding for us to turn, really turn the tide."

And we all go on.

RESOURCES

1. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them their time is up for giving priority to the rich and to industry. It is now time to work for the Earth and her people and animals. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

2. Learn about environmental illness, especially in children, at Healthy Child.

3. Get active in protecting our planet's animals with Defenders of Wildlife at: http://www.defenders.org/

4. Challenge your assumptions about the world with the help of the Center for Science for the Public Interest at: http://www.cspinet.org/

5. Learn about what toxic substances are in your home at: http://www.envirohome.com/

6. Get help understanding complex environmental problems from the Environmental Working Group at: http://www.ewg.org/

7. Help stop the abuse of farm animals. Learn from Farm Sanctuary at: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/index.htm and the Humane Farming Association at: http://www.hfa.org/about/index.html

8. Very quickly make your voice heard on many issues with the help of 20/20 Vision at: http://www.2020vision.org/index.htm

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of ""Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at: http://www.healingourworld.com}