Earth thoughts 49-56

Earth thought 49 of 365: The Ignatian approach to sin asks the self-examiner to discover missed opportunities in life. "Sin", after all, is from a humble Greek word meaning "off the mark". It's no diabolic word. An interesting thing is that the environment is the opportunity that makes most opportunities possible. So to mistreat the environment and make it unhealthy is to sin many sins.

Earth thought 50 of 365: Is it human nature to be short-sighted, to think mostly of one's own life and those of one's kids or grandkids? How do we think ten generations ahead? Human creativity is meant for problems like these.

Earth thought 51 of 365: My end is another's beginning.

Earth thought 52 of 365: A city of open houses. Life passes through, like utopia. And yet this city is real, over a billion years old. The doorway is the species. A species is evolution's doorway for the ongoing stream of life. It is where evolution happens, what lets evolution through. When we make species extinct, we slam doors shut. Mass extinction closes most of the city for millions of years.

Earth thought 53 of 365: Every environmentalist should love valentine's day, for it is when we feel loved, and so fulfilled, that we stop chasing after material things and turn our minds to things that matter and outlast us, like the Earth.

Earth thought 54 of 365: Clarity. Planning and calculating and working the books are irrelevant. I look at life after remembering my grandmother, who died 9 years ago and whom I loved very much. Only the pure things stand out now, like branches in winter.

Earth thought 55 of 365: Has there ever been a movie about the environmental destruction caused by real wars?

Earth thought 56 of 365: Did we fully see the environmental devastation caused by "Shock and Awe" in Iraq? You would think, too, that sometimes the crater in the palm orchard shows how little we care about the palms of people's hands.