Rain

The rain is pelting down here in Boston today. Torrential rain. This is a new type of rain for New England. We are suddenly subject to downpours more typical of climates south of us. Flooding and emergent home repairs result.

Ignoring the deterioration of the atmosphere, due to fossil fuel usage by too many human beings in this enclosed ecosystem of Earth, this bubble of air, water and life in a dry, cold universe, is doing nothing to reverse this trend. The damage that is already done will plague the inhabitants of Earth of decades ahead, even if we begin drastic measures today to halt the environmental changes.

The apparent flaw in human evolution is the frontal lobe's ability to work against the best interests of the human organism. The destractibility and abstraction of the human brain diverts the focus of existence from the essential to the idealized, the imagined. So, the organ in the human body responsible for the advancement of human age and quality of life in the short term may undermine human prosperity in the long run.

This makes me appreciate the tidal nature of existence. There is balance in a closed system. One positive balanced by one negative. Yin and yang. Light and dark. Every gain brings its corresponding loss.

Worship

The day when worship of idols is seen as wishful thinking is at hand. It has come perhaps too late. By waiting for imaginary friends or salvaging aliens to save us from ourselves, the human species has run through the wealth of the planet by overpopulating it and exploiting one another for profit. Now the mighty minority of the wealthy sit in their self-made corners, gated golf courses and high-rise palaces. They fantasize about space colonization and eternal life. They go abroad for plastic surgery in countries where people eat garbage off the streets.

I rejoice in, not worship, my own generous human spirit, shared by my awakened brothers and sisters, who see past the greed, corruption and laziness of personal wealth to a common good. By joining in our right actions and right thoughts, we may start a process of human healing, which in turn could heal the planet. By appealing to the peaceful and good in everyone we meet, we can perhaps overcome the violent and selfish.

Taxes

It has been clearly demonstrated that a substantial state and national fuel taxes could turn our economy around and basically save the planet by waking gas-dependent Americans up in the same way that tobacco taxes weaned the majority of U.S. citizens off smoking. The actual impact on individuals would be negligible. Drivers would be able to compensate by prioritizing their use of vehicles. Those with incomes large enough to travel could afford the increases. Income taxes could be stabilized and perhaps reduced eventually.

There is no free ride back to a viable planet. Supporting politicians who rail against these measures is self-defeating. Those who refuse to pay their share now will pay more dearly later.

Solstice

The Summer Solstice comes this weekend. The longest day of the year. Here in New England, this day of most sunlight has always held significance for me. Our winters are fairly long. January and February are dismal months. So, I often think of this solstice time in those dark days. While revelers are celebrating Christmas and New Year, I am mourning the loss of light. Perhaps I have never lost the genetic memories of my Druid roots.

As I have grown older, I have become more and more sensitive to the seasons and their light. I have developed empathy for the plants in my small front garden. Every morning, I check in with them, as we respond to the weather and light of the day. This has healed my relationship with the planet, I believe. That relationship was horribly narcissistic on my part for many decades. Raised as a selfish human, I had lived as though the planet existed only for me, my comfort, my pleasure.

I know better now. It has taken quite a lot of reality-testing to get my attention. I understand the nearly universal human denial of global climate destruction. However, I also know that this will bring horrors yet unimagined to the human species in the not-too-distant future. I shake my head at those human beings who have procreated and are not rabid environmentalists. This seems to me the height of human ignorance and folly.

I will try to enjoy the long, lavender twilight of another year. The cycle goes on, as it will after I am gone. I am learning to find comfort within my small place on the planet and in The Universe. This deepens my human experience. It does not lessen it.

Water

The urban water supply of Metropolitan Boston has failed, as of May 1st. Contractors associated with the infamous Big Dig tunnel project, a standard of corruption and lethally substandard construction, are rumored to be responsible for the supply pipe which failed after just 7 years, thus cutting off drinkable water for 2 million people. The system has, as yet, no back-up supply line. Brilliant, eh? Yes, we are boiling water in Boston, and it isn't for lobsters or clams. It's for giadia and cryptosporidia.

How did we get here from the proud days of the far-sighted Quabbin Reservoir project and elegantly designed granite pumping stations (as illustrated) on pristine back-up reservoirs, scattered around the city? How is it that we have some of the most plentiful watersheds in the world, yet pay nearly twice as much for water as people in Phoenix, AZ!

I am hoping time will tell all. However, the short attention span of the media and the voting public leaves me doubtful that anything will come of it. In the meantime, I suggest you take a leaf from the book of my independent 90-year-old mother, whom I called to make sure she was aware of the need to boil water for drinking. She said, "Doesn't really effect me at all. I've been boiling my water for decades." And, her practice is not naive. She was once the administrative assistant for her hometown's civil engineer, who, of course, was involved with the urban water supply.

Rain

A pre-Spring rain storm has deluged my area this weekend. The power of wind and water is humbling.

When I encounter the unavoidable and uncontrollable effects of extreme weather, I try to use my powerlessness as a reminder of my true place on the planet and in The Universe. Rather than making it all about me, I try to understand that the "higher power" is simply the visible and invisible ecosystem within which I live, of which I am part. I am one relatively small creature in a massive ecosystem, relative to my size and individual, innate power.

Perhaps this is a key to why some members of the human species have taken a kick-the-dog attitude in their lives. Faced with their powerlessness in the face of their real place in Nature, they have retaliated against those elements in Nature which they can manipulate or destroy. They do this with a sense of impunity and entitlement, without regard to the ecological consequences for themselves, their fellow humans or the whole ecosystem itself.

This is not human ingenuity. This is a crime against humanity and our ecology.

The subtle and daily choices of the serious humanist in daily practice are sometimes exhausting. I often feel the temptation to say, "To hell with it!" And, sometimes I do simply go with the flow, when my energy runs out.

Each morning, however, brings an opportunity to start my practice anew, just as each moment is a decision, a cause, an effort. While water must seek its own level, we, as conscious beings, have the opportunity to actualize our own path, often against the gravity of human greed and indolence. It simply requires making that choice one moment at a time.

Change

Change is inevitable. Our bodies change constantly. The weather changes. The planet itself is always changing.

Human beings can execute behaviors, based on thought, which can change our environment. Yet, how do we use this exceptional ability? We use it to accumulate things at the expense of our health and well being.

The change which some politicians are promoting in their speeches is not really change for the betterment of the species or the planet. Their focus is to preserve the bad habits of materialism and selfishness which are rapidly degrading the planet. They are obsessed with human creations, wealth and power.

True change for the better would be focused on education, the alleviation of poverty by taxing the materialistic, directly dealing with overpopulation and holding responsible those who have plundered human wealth for irresponsible and destructive purposes. However, the domination of world governments by the very greedy corporate entities who have been destroying the planet for decades has perhaps already doomed the human species to a bleak future for some time to come.

Individual practice always allows for positive change in one human life. If the current destructive course of the human experience is to be reversed, individual practice will be at the core of that change. Living in the light of truth with compassion and responsibility is one way to create daily changes in the world, one life at a time.

Hypocrisy

It occurred to me the other day while I was sitting in traffic. I was surrounded by SUVs and minivans, headed for a major artery which leads out to the suburbs. Most people live a lie.

I am a person who lives alone. I have no children. I recycle. I drive a fuel-efficient subcompact. I pay property taxes at the same rate as everyone else. I keep up my property. I did not overmortgage myself. And I am gay.

The people around me appeared to be affluent suburbanites. They were driving wasteful cars. They were disobeying the lane markers. They were driving one to each huge vehicle. I would be willing to wager than many were overleveraged.

I am perceived by a majority of the public as deviant, unworthy of basic legal rights, a threat to children.

I would ask: Who are irresponsible to children? Who are irresponsible to the planet? Who are deviating from that which is right and just?

Bears

The great bears, grizzly and brown and polar, are becoming endangered. Zoologists are predicting the extinction of all but the black bear by century's end. The African elephant is also close to extinction. Whale species are also becoming extinct. And, someday, the human species may cause its own extinction by collapsing ecology.

Read and learn, fellow human. Abandon thoughts of some universal deity who will protect you from your own bad choices, based in ignorance, denial or stupidity. Pick up a book. Surf the Web for knowledge, not sports scores, stock quotes or pornography.

Wake up. Your life passes with each minute, each day, each year. It goes and is gone. What is the measure of that life right now? What is its meaning, its impact? These are the thoughts which lead to human evolution, despite inevitable death and personal extinction.

Wilderness

Wilderness frightens most human beings in this time. This is a sad commentary on our species. Wealthy humans will flock to undeveloped countries where amputees have to beg for their food on the streets before they will try to hike in wilderness. What does this say about our regard for the natural ecosystems from which we emerged? What does this say about our evolution as a species?

I was led to these thoughts after hearing a radio story about the forest fires that have disturbed people living on the edge of national and state forests in the West of the U.S.. The lumber industry, which has plundered all available old growth forest they have been allowed to exploit. now feels they should be allowed to 'thin' the national and state forests down from 1,000 trees per acre to 50 treees per acre. They see this, in their greedy little minds, as a public service, which just happens to yield them great profits. Only in times of a demented relationship between humans and environment would this suggestion be considered long enough to be reported on a national media outlet.

Take a walk. Look at the sky. Find a patch of trees somewhere near you. Reacquaint yourself with your true roots, the roots you have in the soil of your Mother Planet.

Destroyers

I am not at all proud to be a human being, despite the ancient Buddhist passages which encourage believers to be thankful for being born into human existence, as some pinnacle of the Earth's biologic pyramid. Human beings have been destroying the planet like a virus since they developed the capacity to outwit prey. Long before the Nazi and Soviet thugs, human beings have followed one maniac after another who have proclaimed human superiority or human ownership of the planet. Then, of course, they go on to claim the superiority of their particular favorite kind of human. Other species have been trampled, massacred and made extinct with great abandon and a sense of majestic entitlement. In this media-dominated age, we see anthropomorphized animals in cartoons, now full length movies to indoctrinate the young. Penguins, lions, fish....they all deliver the same message. Humans are basically good and the trials of Nature are intrinsically bad. Even 'green' types are suckers for this crap.

In my world view, homo sapiens is one predatory species with no moral superiority to any other predatory species. Men kill each other. Some humans kill their young. We overpopulate when we have enough food to eat. We thrive selfishly at the expense of other species. We eat other species. The major religions contribute to this insane assertion of the superiority of humans. They go out of their way to absolve humans for being ruthless exploiters of the planet in the name of their deities, otherwise known as Imaginary Friends.

Personal human evolution entails understanding the place of the human species in planetary ecology. And, yes, that means study and intellectual discipline. If a person really studies biological and physical science to the point of comprehension, then half the road to personal enlightenment has been travelled. The philosopher or theologian who has no clue about science is simply a con man.