"Some call me Nature, others call me 'mother' nature, as though they believe I care."I’ve been here for over four and a half billion years.
"Twenty-two thousand five-hundred times longer than you.
"I don’t really need people, but you need me.
"Yes, your future depends on me.
"When I thrive, you thrive.
"When I falter, you falter...or worse.
"But I’ve been here for eons.
"I have fed species greater than you, and I have starved species greater than you.
"My oceans! My soil! My flowing streams! My forests!
"They all can take you or leave you.
"How you choose to live each day, whether you regard or disregard me, doesn’t really matter to me.
"One way or the other, your actions will determine your fate, not mine.
"I am nature.
"I will go on.
"I am prepared to evolve.
"Are you?"
This, to me, sums up the real "inconvenient truth" concerning humanity's impact on planet Earth.
Not that we're 'destroying' it, because humanity simply doesn't have that capacity.
Rather, that the planet doesn't care and regardless of what we do to it, it will simply sleep it off, unfazed, absolutely assured yet utterly unconcerned that somewhere, somehow, someday, life will rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes.
Or not!
'Mother' nature doesn't care and nor do any of the species we share the environment with.
This is the inconvenient truth that, since the dawn of time, has lead humanity to create a plethora of gods.
This is the inconvenient truth that, since the dawn of time, has lead humanity to create a plethora of gods.
We need to feel special, superior, missed and even mourned.
The apocalyptic scenarios we see played out in Hollywood scripts account for nothing in time measured in billions of years.
They are manufactured to reassure us that we can prevail over impending doom and that we must triumph for the good of all life on earth, which would be diminished somehow for our absence.
They are manufactured to reassure us that we can prevail over impending doom and that we must triumph for the good of all life on earth, which would be diminished somehow for our absence.
Yet turn the planet barren and toxic and 1-million, 5-million or even 100-million years hence, life will flourish again and our 'Mother' will not shed a tear, nor seek to preserve any evidence of our existence.
Had humanity existed 64-million years ago, I have no doubt we'd have run about frantically trying to save the dinosaur from the impending celestial apocalypse.
But the dinosaur was exterminated and life continued to evolve and flourish totally unmoved by his demise.
But the dinosaur was exterminated and life continued to evolve and flourish totally unmoved by his demise.
Creatures daily over-populate, over-consume and die as a result of their over-consumption and nature continues about its business, oblivious of it all.
Holes in the ozone layer, global warning, melting ice-sheets, rising waters, terrorism, bombs and nuclear contamination, none of it means a thing to Nature.
We are not "killing the planet".
We are not "killing the planet".
What best suites humanity is not the bar by which we should measure responsible management or excellence, much less our own significance.
Without gods, there is no special plan for humanity. Without gods to raise us high, we are just another species struggling to find a balanced and an enduring niche to fill.
And if we fail, without gods, nothing whatsoever will mourn our passing for more than an heartbeat in evolutionary terms.
Certainly not our "Mother Nature".
And if we fail, without gods, nothing whatsoever will mourn our passing for more than an heartbeat in evolutionary terms.
Certainly not our "Mother Nature".
Despite our delusions of stewardship and dominion over all we survey, 99.99% of life on earth gets on with its daily routine, totally oblivious of humanity's existence, it various trials and its grand plans.
Humanity is the only inhabitant of planet earth that recognises its superiority and dominion over all species.
Like Mother Nature, nothing else cares to indulge our collective ego in that way.
Does this mean we should ravage the planet as we please?
The human drive to maintain the status quo because various aspects of the environment, as they stand today, suit us, may not be what nature intended.
If it is indeed true that "all things have their season", perhaps humanity's has passed.
Planet Earth is a dynamic ever changing biosphere. Aside from the various creation stories that award mankind dominion over all he surveys, there is no evidence that the planet has reached the final chapter of its developmental.
It may be that like the dinosaurs of 160-million years ago, humanity is the dominant species today, only until some disaster sets the species back, providing opportunities for others to rise.
Meanwhile, cries to go solar, save the whale from Japanese fishing fleets and end the 'cruelty' of hunting, amount to little more than distractions.
Their aim is to divert attention from the one proven strategy which, short of some volcanic or celestial intervention, would assure humanity's place of intellectual superiority on Earth for eternity.
But giving ourselves over to the various ills designed to keep all species in check is not an option for us.
We consider ourselves above influences designed to prevent any species overpopulating its environment to the detriment of others - strategies fine tuned and perfected over millions of years by Mother Nature.
We are unwilling to forgo our right to breed unchecked while thwarting nature's best efforts to cull the weak from the herd.
We are the human race and thus above all the seemingly cruel and random natural selection stuff.
We are masters of our own conscious evolutionary journey.
And because we know, somewhere deep in side, that it is wrong to regard our species above the laws of nature, we regard 'lesser' lifeforms anthropomorphically, in the misguided belief all life on Earth must benefit, as we have done, by no longer being subjected to the eternal struggle.
This is the new-age religious doctrine of environmental egotism and like those before it, it is based on fear, illusion and human ego.
The world is a larder, to be exploited and harvested responsibly for the essential needs of all life on earth.
The hunter respects and understands the true nature of the environment better than most, because his participation in its processes is fundamental.
He has not lost sight of his true nature or his place in the precarious balance of all life on Earth.
Every step he takes is a pilgrimage backward in time to a place before gods, free from worldly pretenses and ego, keeping faith with a plan devised by "Mother Nature" that is subject to change without notice.
Like Mother Nature, nothing else cares to indulge our collective ego in that way.
Does this mean we should ravage the planet as we please?
The human drive to maintain the status quo because various aspects of the environment, as they stand today, suit us, may not be what nature intended.
If it is indeed true that "all things have their season", perhaps humanity's has passed.
Planet Earth is a dynamic ever changing biosphere. Aside from the various creation stories that award mankind dominion over all he surveys, there is no evidence that the planet has reached the final chapter of its developmental.
It may be that like the dinosaurs of 160-million years ago, humanity is the dominant species today, only until some disaster sets the species back, providing opportunities for others to rise.
Meanwhile, cries to go solar, save the whale from Japanese fishing fleets and end the 'cruelty' of hunting, amount to little more than distractions.
Their aim is to divert attention from the one proven strategy which, short of some volcanic or celestial intervention, would assure humanity's place of intellectual superiority on Earth for eternity.
But giving ourselves over to the various ills designed to keep all species in check is not an option for us.
We consider ourselves above influences designed to prevent any species overpopulating its environment to the detriment of others - strategies fine tuned and perfected over millions of years by Mother Nature.
We are unwilling to forgo our right to breed unchecked while thwarting nature's best efforts to cull the weak from the herd.
We are the human race and thus above all the seemingly cruel and random natural selection stuff.
We are masters of our own conscious evolutionary journey.
And because we know, somewhere deep in side, that it is wrong to regard our species above the laws of nature, we regard 'lesser' lifeforms anthropomorphically, in the misguided belief all life on Earth must benefit, as we have done, by no longer being subjected to the eternal struggle.
This is the new-age religious doctrine of environmental egotism and like those before it, it is based on fear, illusion and human ego.
The world is a larder, to be exploited and harvested responsibly for the essential needs of all life on earth.
The hunter respects and understands the true nature of the environment better than most, because his participation in its processes is fundamental.He has not lost sight of his true nature or his place in the precarious balance of all life on Earth.
Every step he takes is a pilgrimage backward in time to a place before gods, free from worldly pretenses and ego, keeping faith with a plan devised by "Mother Nature" that is subject to change without notice.
Anyway, I’ll get outaya way now....
©gmallard2016 all rights reserved
©gmallard2016 all rights reserved
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I don't know where to start, Garry. The many points you make about nature parallel most of mine and my wife's, I haven't tried to discuss them with anyone, as I didn't think most people would truly comprehend. As for your comments about hunters, quite a few times an ancient feeling, no, a call has drifted across my mind when out and about in the hills and on the River. I'm shakin' right now just thinking about them, Keep well and keep the good words coming.
ReplyDeleteI suspect I may have shared that 'shiver' on occasion, Alan. I'm no poet, but I once had a crack at putting the 'call' into words. For what it's worth....
DeleteThe Hunters’ Way
Did you ever waken early, in the newborn frosted light,
Hear stones a-tumbling in a creek and Wonga take to flight.
Did you ever wrap your hands around a tin-cup to keep warm,
As you watched the mist that rises over wetlands with the dawn.
Did you ever sit on mossy ground, your back against a tree,
And marvel there for hours, at all that you could see.
Breezes rippling through tall grasses, clouds that gather on the hills,
Wedge-tails spiralling for hours, Peewees bombing them for thrills.
Have you seen the blacksnake basking, in the first light of the day,
Have you smiled at little piles of thorns, that waddle ‘cross your way.
And when you knelt to drink your fill, from a pristine mountain stream,
Did you see the hunter looking back, unshaven tall and lean.
Did you recognise his hunger, did you question his right to kill,
Should you linger any longer, is his prey’s blood yours to spill.
And somewhere half detected in the corner of your eye,
Was your father’s face reflected, framed by a clear blue sky.
Did you feel him squeeze your shoulder, gently ruffle-up your hair,
With the shadows growing longer, were you sure you felt him there.
All the hunting yarns he’d told, were they echoed on the breeze,
Did the hunter’s arm enfold you, and put your doubts at ease.
Yes you feel the link eternal, that courses through your veins,
And you hear the ancient echoes, in the valleys hills and plains.
T’was a sacred ageless legacy that drew you here this day,
And you’ll walk this land with honour, for that’s the hunters’ way.
- G. Mallard 2014
ReplyDeleteThank you Garry. Your poem has moved both of us to tears...It is so true. Both our fathers have passed, yet they are still here with us....from Elaine
Love your stuff in Australian Deer mag and now I can get a fix anytime I want. Thanks for speaking out for hunters and shooters.
ReplyDeleteGood hunting Gary