Chapter three, Question three

Previous answers found here.

3. Do I have hope in the possibilities of the New Age? Do I feel despair over the dying environment of the planet or see it as a hopeless task? Do I feel moved to try to save the earth? Can I see death of the old as the precursor to the birth of the new?

Given the current prevailling attitudes of those in power to make sweeping climatic choices, no, I don't have a great deal of hope in the possibilities of a new age. Yet, that said, given the signs that the majority are shaking off the yoke of illusion and ignorance that they've willingly worn for the past decades, perhaps the glimmer does grow a bit stronger. I am trying to nurture that feeling, even though I often quip that I 'will not give up entirely upon humanity no matter how often they prove they don't deserve it.' Colour me cautiously optimistic.

Environmental issues. Add a healthy dose of anger to my despair, please. There are normal cycles of evolution and growth/death that life goes through in all environments. That is good and healthy. The great swathes of dead zones in the oceans and the land strip-mined and poisoned for profit is not. That is what I will protest and continue to pressure others for change, no matter how hopeless it seems at times. People don't bathe in their own filth or the filth of others, why should they live in the toxic shite of others while the robber barons have pristine views of panoramic landscapes. Make the bastards live on mercury tainted fields and eat food taken from poisoned waters and acreage, and see how fast things would change. Again, though, there is a glimmer that people are beginning to say 'no' to being forced to endure these kinds of situations.

While I don't feel compelled to save the entire earth per se, I do try to do my best to make my corner of it a healthy environment. I teach my children, and hopefully reach others, about conserving resources, looking for the most efficient sources of energy, and the aesthetic pleasure of a clean environment even if you have to pick up the litter that someone else threw to the ground. We are not divorced from the earth, nor have we been given the green light to run amok upon it indulging in mindless consumption and destruction of the environment. We are stewards and caretakers of the garden of Original Blessing that the creator[s] bestowed upon us. If everyone viewed humanity as the touch point of the realm of spirit made manifest, and that we were never kicked out of the 'Garden' save in our own twisted views of life and the earth, the world just might look a bit different.

"The problem with Westerners is that they believe they have been kicked out of the garden. They live their lives as if they had been thrown out of the realm of the divine. But the shaman knows that we always have existed and still exist in the Garden. Life is a feast. You are invited to dine."

~Alberto Villoldo