So I'm in Toronto. In the bliss of Highspeed.
Only when you're without what others take for granted does one appreciate the Small Stuff that makes life so much easier.
And talking of life ~
I wonder what it's like for the 12% of US homeowners now walking away from their houses. "Strategic Abandonment" is the new buzzword for this.
I wonder what it's like to be a fisher in the Gulf of Mexico and have this toxic spill swallow everything in its path.
I wonder what it's like in the EU and particularly in Greece and in the UK where life is about to change irrevocably with further economic collapses.
I wonder at the magnitude of this confluence of what is happening on our tiny planet as it twists and turns in its death throes. A commentary I heard on CBC Newfoundland as I was driving Ansa to the kennel summed up this whole disastrous way of life so beautifully:
Amen, I thought. Of course. We have to produce before we consume. Is it too late for our grandchildren to rethink their worlds having been taught the opposite by their parents and grandparents?
"In the last fifty years or so we started to reverse the economic methodology of our ancestors wherein we now placed consumption before production when it HAS to be the other way around."
And did you know that offshore in Newfoundland, they are digging even deeper for the oil than BP was in the Gulf?
And when the Newfoundland government was challenged on what we are doing to prevent another massive spill, here's a summary of what the minister said:
Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale says the oil industry is watching the events in the Gulf of Mexico to see what lessons can be learned from a massive spill there.
Ms. Dunderdale said earlier this week that the offshore industry is too vital to the province to ever curtail drilling.
Yes, Drill, Baby, Drill is the modus operandi in Newfoundland.
And flying over vast swathes of clear cutting gives me time to reflect on all of this.
And resign myself to the fact that those times I read about as a child are here. Now.
• When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
~ Cree Prophecy
The Cree obviously knew what was coming. Not too hard to predict when you see how profit became THE god...
ReplyDeleteHi WWW! Glad you made it safely here!
ReplyDeleteLunch? Brunch?
Booze to commiserate over spilt oil and such? (or celebrate Hyspeed Heven?)
A good friend of mine was on the Ocean Ranger, how soon we forget...
The day will come.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the speed, the lunch and the brunch while money will still buy it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect post! I sooooo agree with you.... We are slowly but surely distorting our beautiful earth... humans are ruthless...... and the mantra "drill baby drill" is drilling utter pain into my head!
ReplyDeleteVery true that the feverish urge to consume non-stop is now driving the sort of over-production that caused the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And of course the over-production of greenhouse gases that are threatening the planet's survival.
ReplyDeleteTimothy Egan in the New York Times said: "If we learned anything from the 1998 Alaska oil spill, it's that we won't learn anything from this one, either."
ReplyDeleteIt has a ring of truth, sadly.
@Pauline:
ReplyDeleteIf only we could learn from our wise elders, it is far too late, I fear!
@Annie:
I will email you privately....
@Sean:
Alas, it has arrived. No going back now.
@GM:
Yes, I think WE elders should spend it all before it becomes worthless...
and thanks!
@Nevin:
This was all predicted centuries ago, it is like watching a trainwreck and being helpless against the forces of greed.
@Nick:
BP is but the canary in the coalmine.
@Frances:
We are a pitiful species, aren't we? We have never learned a bloody thing, from wars, from nukes from plundering this gorgeous place. We deserve to be extinct, seriously.
XO
WWW
I sit here surrounded by technology realizing how isolated I have become by that which is supposed to liberate us from drudgery. Amazing. Depressing.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I ought to go live in a cave by the sea and live off the land, but it won't make one bit of difference. There are a billion others who won't. In the meantime, I do my best, but even I can't prevent an oil spill. How about some good old population control.
ReplyDeleteVP:
ReplyDeleteRussell W at the Tely had a brilliant article on just what you are saying, did you read it?
We need a LOT more F2F.
XO
WWW
Nora:
ReplyDeleteIt's too late for pop control, we are too late at all of the parties. We have nothing to replace the oil amd our waters are more and more polluted and only the Pharma Phlunks are making money...I think if we all went out and dug somewhere and planted something we'd feel a lot better.
XO
WWW