I live alone out in the forest but am seldom lonely, for I have a keeper.
My keeper is beautiful and scarred and is giving despite having been shamelessly exploited. She is widely revered and is tragically abused. As only a true keeper does, she knows that I need her more than she needs me.
On warm summer evenings she allows me to be cast adrift in her calming waves and then cradles me upon a monolith in the auburn glow of the setting sun. When my heart or mind become restless or troubled, she calms me with her serene and rhythmic presence.
My keeper is not of flesh and blood. My keeper is of the rock and dirt in the mountain behind me. My keeper is of the flora and fauna about me. My keeper is of the waters below me. My keeper is the Northwoods.
My keeper is timeless. She was present when time began and will be present long after humankind has extinguished itself from this planet.
She has always been welcoming of all life forms and indeed for eons it was a beautiful affair. Then came the timber barons who exploited her and stripped her naked and abandoned her. She graciously fed their building boom and coffers. What the timber barons did not know is that they needed her, but she did not need them.
Far from being defeated or broken over this wholesale exploitation, she was resilient. She slowly and methodically erased her scars and created a new bounty and beauty. She did not harbor ill will and welcomed those who came after and who harvested no more than she has to offer. Reward has been granted by providing a reliable supply of her precious bounty for the benefit of humanity.
Next came the industrialist coveting the bounty that lies beneath her surface. They came armed with the mechanical marvels of the day and dug and scraped and bored deeply within her bowels in search of ores and metals both precious and common. She graciously fed their industrial revolution and coffers. When the industrialist could exploit no more, he hastily departed and left her blemished.
What the industrialist did not know is that they needed her, she did not need them. She did not bear ill will nor despair, for she has at her disposal two forces greater than any possessed by humankind- time and water.
For my keeper, the span of a human life is barely the snap of a finger. She is patient and can outwait us all.
While we humans revel in our accomplishments and congratulate ourselves for our inventiveness, nothing we can create will ever triumph over her mightiest weapon, the drop of water.
She can dispense the lowly droplet singly or collectively within massive and powerful waves. She can freeze that droplet so that it exerts the expansive force of a bomb that can cleave the mightiest monolith into two. She can slowly and methodically release drop after drop, over and over, over eons with each drop landing in the same spot, callously, flippantly, and effortlessly reducing the mighty monolith to lowly single grains.
She knows that for all the effort and resources and hubris that we humans place upon our marvels and grand achievements, in the end she will prevail, and all shall be reduced back into mere elements and returned to her. Including our mortal flesh and bone.
That belief that she needs our salvation is really us trying to save ourselves. The naysayers may have a rather short-sighted point, the wounds and scars we inflict upon her today will not cause life shattering impact of biblical proportions in the next hours or days. Those impacts appear to be slow moving when viewed through the prism of human terms.
One example out of a staggering array is Carbon Dioxide. The CO2 levels for 10,000 years had been a stable and life sustaining 280 ppm. However, since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution that CO2 level has skyrocketed to 430 ppm, resulting in additional heat trapped within our atmosphere. That trapped heat has rapidly melted great expanses of polar ice, resulting in sea levels rising 20 cm since 1900. The rising seas and melting ice threaten the polar bear, a species divergent for over 150,000 years, with extinction by as soon as 2100.
We humans have accelerated events that normally take thousands or tens of thousands of years into a span of about 200 years. But the human life span is too short to see that in its entirety, so we seemingly won’t acknowledge that.
And long after humankind has made itself extinct, my keeper will be slowly mending and healing and preparing herself for the next dominant species.
If we come to our senses and begin to treat my keeper well, she will continue satisfy our needs and extend our existence on this planet. That is my choice. What is your choice? For she is your keeper as well.
Every forward and clear-thinking government, critically thinking intelligence agency, and scientist without agenda or undue outside influence agree that the abuse of our keeper will have very grave and tremendously negative impacts on the future. The wounds and scars we inflict upon her today will be felt by our children a score and a hundred and a thousand years from now. Those children will wonder why we were such horrible people and dealt them such a cruel fate.
For all of the good and all the progress humanity has put forth, it is our current stubborn belief in the status quo that will seal our fate in the most horrible terms. We could become more kind, more gentle to our mother planet. That would extend our time on this planet and reduce suffering.
We could embrace the challenges and use our collective genius to create new efficiencies and better ways. That would also create new economic opportunities. Or we can continue to stubbornly cling to our current disastrous path and outdated ways, dooming the organized civilization we have worked so hard to craft to devolve into a dystopia plagued by droughts and floods and heat and cold and violent storms and famine and strife.
Our fate is in our own hands. And we need our keeper more than she needs us.
Happy Earth Day.
The Unexpected Minimalist 