Our Defining Moment
It begins (as always) within — with forgiving ourselves and then others, then compassion, then engaging in a different kind of conversation regarding global warming
If climate change is caused by one thing, then we assume automatically that it’s related to the consumption of fossil fuels. If it’s caused by many things, the presumption is that it’s human activity — as some are now referring to it as Anthropogenic Climate Change, which is a fancy way of saying human induced. If it is caused by something outside our control, then we tend toward one of many theories like the wobble of the Earth’s rotation around the sun, etc., etc.
One thing for sure is that it’s the greatest existential threat to human survival we’ve ever faced. This is our planet killing meteor moment that instead of going out in a big flash that we never saw coming, it’s a slow killer.
I’ve cycled through many emotions over the years regarding this threat to our existence. First it was anger — the natural first response to something that seems out of my control. Then fear, apathy, resolve, dismissal, and more recently acceptance. Not acceptance with apathy, but rather with compassion.
Allow me to explain.
In parallel to my thoughts regarding global warming I’ve gradually let go of my fear of death. Doing so enables me to live a different kind of life, to reconsider long held beliefs, and even those beliefs that serve as the canon of human thought. Such as my reason for being.
In every planet-killing existential threat treated upon us by the wonderful genre of Sci-Fi there is always an unspoken assumption that we (as in all of humanity) must do everything in our power to prevent our extinction. That we must fight with every ounce of strength to survive.
If a War of the Worlds style thread comes down upon us we will nuke every last one of those buggers until we’re rid of the threat, and no one will question the necessity of our extreme response.
But a slow killer such as global warming is different. Instead we debate and argue. We speak to such things as “economic consequences” or “inadequate data” or “political motives.”
Which brings me to the question of our existence. Some spiritual teachers have referred to our incarnate experience as “participating in the Earth School.” Which means that we have incarnated here to learn in the “Earth School.” That our very existence is a form of school, that we chose it, that we’re here not just to work and enjoy and validate our mutual beliefs, but rather to bump into each other, to have conflict and find resolution, to hurt and to be hurt, to learn and to heal.
And a big part of our Earth School teaching is forgiveness and compassion — beginning most fundamentally with ourselves.
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