At its worst, eating is about escape, sex is about control, money is about status, and drinking is about forgetting.
Everything has a hidden origin, an agenda, a reason behind the reason. And if ever we’re going to get ourselves, the planet and everything on it safely to the other side, we need to investigate this thing behind the thing.
We need to make sure that what we’re about, is true to who we are.
Only when we’ve excavated the true motivations behind the issues of our day, can we do the hard work of changing them for the better, and that’s why I want to talk to you about being environmentally aware.
Going green is in its weakest instance about just that, being a tree hugger. Changing your lightbulbs, separating the trash and switching to a hybrid aren’t, in its essence, what being an environmentalist is all about.
Those are only the things through which our hidden agenda’s find their expressions.
Being concerned about our planet and its inhabitants is not a political issue, it isn’t even a sociological, economic or environmental issue. At the deepest level, how you feel about what happens to our planet is an issue of humanity.
Our convictions, actions and daily decisions about how we live our lives next to each other, tells us something of our collective grasp on our own humanity. It is true, according to the oracles of Mandela, Tutu, Theresa and MLK, that our own humanity is indeed wrapped up in the humanity of others, that our mere existence cannot be validated if it leads to the destruction of others.
Our take on what it means to live as a human being, is the thing behind every single other thing.
There is not one moment that goes by, in which we don’t exhibit our version of what it means to be human through our words, actions and, well… inactions.
So, what does it mean to be truely human?
It comes from within, our own humanity. The basic building blocks of living as a holistically healthy person is already embedded deep within our souls. Many tribes have different names for these ancient human characteristics, but in my tradition, we named them faith, hope and love.
Faith, hope and love is what makes us human.
Having faith that humanity can be its best yet again, and that nature can forgive us our transgressions and bathe us in beauty as a sign of its grace, is human. Hoping that we can be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and that meaning, destiny and purpose can find its way back into our lives still, is human.
And finally, having an unlimited supply of love for those that are different, those that are outcast, those that are marginalised, and those that are outnumbered, is human.
It is our innate capacity of faith, hope and love, that stirs our own humanity within us.
It is my susbmission that no picture of any lonely polar bear, documentary film by fringe activists, or sleek social media campaigns will get us to care. We don’t live near the ice cap, and we don’t feel the effects of climate change.
Yet.
We must keep in mind the thing behind the thing.
Appealing to our own human nature, our need and capacity for faith, hope and love, will create in us and others the desire to see everything and everyone restored. When we come to the realisation that, in our world at least, everything is connected, and that our own survival is indeed wrapped up in the survival of everything else, we might rediscover what it means to be human again.
To care about what is happening to our planet.
To find our own, green selves.
www.mynhardtvanpletsen.me
