Northern Arizona University/Environmental Ethics/Journals/The Howl of the Wolf

If there is such a thing as Gaia or Earth itself being an organism with all of its biota being the different organs that make up the whole, are some of us humans nothing more than a cancerous cyst? Some people see working for the earth as a responsibility to the land and themselves. How often does a hard day's work seem rewarding of itself? I have never met such grounded individuals as those who find meaning in their relationship with the earth and one another. Their energy sort of describes their story as one can get a sense that of the balance these people find in life.

When I think of a serene mountainside or an untouched riverbank I imagine what Jesus and Buddha must have been thinking when they would retreat to nature to discover their relationship to the cosmos. What clarity and simplicity that can be found in the wilderness! To become the Witness as opposed to telling the world what it is. To observe history, the present, and the unknown all in one place, all in one moment. The wilderness is a place that makes use of all known and unknown senses to all living creatures.

In nature there is no room to frustrate any of the mechanics that aid in its continuation. The delicate balances of the natural world depend on all the elements and the processes that have created and maintained much of what exists on this planet to remain untampered by Human's concept of time. The natural world itself does not know time. Much of the animal kingdom do not know what time is. Only Human's interpretation seems to be at fault for the many miscalculations of our world. To think that we can put characters that we call numbers to represent an eternity of prior and continued existence is beyond any realm that a human being can experience. Isn't that what we attribute to be the duty of God? When did humans decide to take matters into their own hands? Was this the fault of Eve? Do we blame some ancient relative for inventing Human's first tool? Where did we go wrong and how do we begin the process of damage control? Can we control the damage we've made for the biological sphere by which we inhabit?