Matter Matters

Sometimes I run across things I’ve written years ago that still seem quite relevant today…

Like this matter-full post from way back when…actually the reference to my age gives it away, since I’m now 53 (well, almost 54)…

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that there’s something different about the world these days.

People seem to be a bit more edgy and fearful now than any time since I was born 48 years ago.

Of course, I didn’t live through the two great world wars, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, or other seminal world events of the past.

Maybe this same eery and unpleasant feeling was lingering in the air back then as well.

But something strange is in our air, or “airwaves”, since everything now is media driven…

sometimes I believe to the point of being “driven” right off a cliff.

I can hear it in my mother’s voice when I talk with her.

People are fearful about stuff, or maybe I should say fearful about losing their “stuff.”

And that brings me to the topic of today’s post, matter.

In my simplistic and wholly unscientific view the universe is divided into two categories of matter.

You have the things that are natural, such as all forms of life, the earth itself, the atmosphere, oceans, land, and everything else natural that the universe contains.

Then you have the things that are man-made.

One exists by the hand and will of god (or perhaps the “god particle”) and the other by the hand and will of, well, us.

Protecting the natural world at the expense of our laser-like focus on the man-made shit is scoffed at by too many of us.

But doesn’t it all matter…really?

Now I’m not advocating that we all go back to living in caves and hunting and gathering.

But I am advocating that there be some balance restored in our approach to what matters…

because it all does.

We have gone so far in creating a world of comfort for ourselves at the expense of the natural that we are at the tipping point where our actions are having a profound and negative effect on the natural world.

This obsessive focus on man-made material comfort, a focus that says only “we” matter, is getting us in a lot of trouble these days.

The climate is changing because of it.

Organisms are disappearing.

The order of nature is being upset.

Greed is now good.

And we are literally consuming ourselves out of existence.

And everyone wants to blame everyone else.

It’s the Republicans fault. No, it’s the Democrats that did it. No, the Muslims! The Christians! No, says Trump, it’s those damn Chinese…

and so it goes without end.

The truth is we’re all at fault, every single one of us.

Because we, the human organism, are the only form of matter that has the ability to destroy this planet…well, short of a wayward asteroid, or an unstable Higgs Boson particle.

And we are doing a pretty darn good job of it.

The jaguar can’t do that. They just live according to their god-given instincts. They can’t decide to build an atomic bomb, or kidnap other animals for ransom, or commit any of the millions of dastardly deeds that humans inflict upon themselves.

They don’t burn or chop down the forest, or go to war with other animals.

They just live according to the plan that was laid out for them.

So, what’s the plan for us?

Are we living according to the right plan, or have we gotten off track?

I think what needs to occur is that we stop making every argument a political one, especially those that concern our planet and the health of it.

That we start taking action to correct the errors that have brought us to where we are now.

That doesn’t mean that we lose our comforts of life, our homes and cars, cities, planes, railroads and all those other things that make us feel better, or superior.

Costa Rica is a country that is pretty low on the totem pole in terms of its rate of consumption compared with the developed countries of the world.

And it’s a place where folks do seem to get it when it comes to the idea that the natural world does matter.

I guess it’s easier to have a deep respect for nature when you’re surrounded by so much of it.

Maybe Costa Rica and other biodiversity hot spots around the world (the few that are left) can serve as giant classrooms to teach us humans that the natural world does matter.

That would be a pretty cool thing to see happen.

Maybe then we humans could come to realize that matter matters, whatever form it might take.

That realization is at the heart of impact mindfulness.

I hope we’re not too late.

image credit: Tambako the Jaguar via Compfight cc