Friday 18 July 2014

We do not inherit the planet from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

The quote in the title is an introduction to some of the thoughts that shall be mused upon within this blog; the constant movement of mankind to have more, take more and not stop to ponder the consequences on the world around us; the wider ripple effects of our actions. 




We are moving on a pathway of “development”; a one-route only march towards our chosen epiphany. Yet, on that march, so many worlds, so many peoples, so many environments are being trodden upon in order to reach our goal.  In his iconic book, Walden, Henry Thoreau said, “The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?” The impact that this processing of homogonised life is having upon the earth itself is what I pause to write about in this blog. 

Thoreau went on to say, "We need the tonic of wildness...At the same tme that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable; that land and sea shall be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature."

It is these relationships between man and nature, and between man and fellow man that I wish to write about; and the ripple effect that our daily actions have on the birds and the bees and the next door neighbours of our planet.





I am a teacher. I am a writer. I am a traveler, a daydreamer, a thinker and a doer. But this blog is not about me: it is instead a vessel; a pair of eyes observing the world and passing comment, raising questions, musing and mulling over some of the wonders and worries that lie ahead of us all living together here on planet earth.

I left the shores of the mainstream a few years ago, impelled to learn more about what is happening beneath the surface of our world.  Through my travels over the past twenty years, I have visited many a remote corner of the world, and had the great pleasure and privilege to travel across almost every continent of this vast globe.  On my journeys, I have met extraordinary people, seen unbelievable natural beauties and had my eyes opened to so many aspects of the planet that we all share.  On the flip side, I have also had my eyes opened to so many of the atrocities, destruction and human mistakes that we are making across the planet.  The world is changing beyond recognition from the place it was when we first arrived, and it is us humans that are changing it; moving the very core of what has spun so steadily in these skies for so many moons.

Writing has always been my personal vessel for learning; recording thoughts and knowledge, ideas and inspirations as I move around the world. However, the concept of writing has now become a vessel for sharing these ideas with others; whether that sharing is through the books I am currently working on, through this blog, through reading or through endless conversations I have with friends and strangers. The passing on of ideas, of thinking and of wisdom is all that matters.

Here’s a video to get this blog started. (Click on the link)


Once upon a time the earth began, and it span and it span and it span. One day, not so long ago, us humans emerged. If you think of the world since it began as being represented by just twenty four hours, we only arrived in the final minute or so (as the brilliant picture beneath so eloquently illustrates).



Point being, we haven't been around all that long, and yet we have seemingly taken direct ownership of the entire planet; of something that wasn't ever ours to own.  Whilst travelling along our relatively short journey, we humans have not only lost respect for the earth, we have started to lose respect for each other. As Gandhi stated, "What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another." We have meddled endlessly over time with the world and those living at peace within it, and are now doing so on an epic scale in the name of 'development'. Here's another short clip to illustrate this idea more specifically. (Click on the link).


This blog is not being written to judge, to blame or to rant. It is being written to question why. One of the most important words in any language has to be Why?; engaging the mind in the art of critical thinking serves as an ultimate life lesson to us all. If we only start to question why things are happening as they do, we can perhaps start to understand where we are going wrong; what is good and what bad, and perhaps find better ways to move forward than down the massively destructive path we are currently on.

And so the birds, the bees and the big mistakes shall be readily mused upon and dissected as this blog flits and flies its way across the airwaves.







1 comment:

  1. Hear hear Rachel - very well put, and I look forward to reading more from this blog - it's a subject I too feel passionate about, good on you... :)

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