What Pisses Me Off Beyond Belief Is...

It's already the dog days of summer and summer isn't even here yet. I'm sitting here, staring at an empty screen, knowing I need to publish something and replace the filler that's currently posted, knowing I need to write another story, but nothing comes to mind. And even if it did, I don't think I have the energy to write it.


So, since everything else seems to be in summer reruns, I'm going to repost an article from over a year ago that seems particularly apropos considering the current situation in the Gulf.


As bad and as sick as the tragedy itself makes me feel, what pisses me off beyond belief are the assholes who complain about the money and manpower being wasted on helping the birds and other animals affected by mankind's greed


These people have no concept of a moral obligation to the fellow creatures who share this planet with us and it is they who will ultimately kill it.


Anyway, here it is...


Walk Gently On The Earth


Consider this… each time you step out of your house, something dies.


Each time you take a stroll in your yard or a walk in the park, something is killed or crippled. With each step you take, some small creature’s day goes bad. One second he’s just bopping along minding his own business, and the next… Wham-O! King Kong wipes him out.


Multiply this millions of times over and you should get a pretty good idea of the impact mankind is having on this planet, our home.  Now this post is not about beating you up over your careless and wasteful ways. I am certain all of my readers are earth conscious and aware and are doing what you can, but I do want to dwell a bit on being ever mindful of the consequences of our actions and their effect on the rest of creation.


I have come to understand that at least one law of physics is absolute truth: For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.


I believe this law applies to every single thing we do, and even think. It applies to every system or industry we create. But because the reaction to our action is most often invisible to us, we have no idea that it even happened, much less what the effect is and its impact on anyone or anything, near and far.


For example, if you poke your finger into a balloon, it expands in all directions, but you can’t see it.


The economy is no different. A New York trader negotiates a good price on bananas and the result is, some peasant farmer doesn’t make enough money to send his kids to school and, as a result, the children only learn how to pick bananas which produces more product than demand, driving down the price even further and the farmer's family into poverty.


This same principle applies to our everyday lives as well. To some degree or another, everything we do effects someone, or something else, whether we are aware of it or not.


Most primitive cultures knew this well. They knew first hand what the earth gives up for us and thus, the earth became the basis of their spirituality. They paused before slaughtering a calf in appreciation and thankfulness of its sacrifice. They paused before eating to thank the earth for its bounty.


Thanking some sky god for giving us a sterile, shrink-wrapped supermarket "food item" is not the same as getting the blood of the pig you raised on your hands.


Walk gently on the earth dear travelers.