Have you, as I have, ever tried to observe other people's lifestyles as someone from another planet might and wondered "What is wrong with these people?" We live in a world where many societies have an infrastructure built on materialism, isolation, exploitation, and greed (and America may well be the ring-leader). We have committed horrible acts of violence against other members of our own species simply because of differences among us: race (the slave trade), religion (the Crusades), personal gain (the decimation of 9 million Native Americans so Europeans could "claim" America), sexual orientation (I still hear offensive ignorant statements like, "I am happy I don't have to talk to that 'fag'"), and various other differences. However, the very reason that the earth is so unique is because of this amazing variety, found between species, climate, and geography! Our planet is amazing!
“A weird, lovely, fantastic object out of nature…has the ability to remind us…that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours…for a little while, we are able to see, as a child sees, a world of marvels…” -Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
I feel like I have always had a very deep appreciation for this “world of marvels.” In fact, from a young age, I always felt more connected with the natural world than with most of my peers. I did not fit into their world of material joys. So at the end of the school day, I happily turned to “The Fields” and all of its marvels. The Fields invited me with its nonjudgmental expanse and its promise of adventure. I spent many a day catching tadpoles in the pond (and then releasing them); building forts with booby-traps around them (to keep out the boys); digging The Hole in the hopes to unearth Dinosaur bones (I never found any, but I think The Hole’s record depth reached 3 ½ feet…a lot back then); sledding on Devil’s Hill (the more wipe-outs the better). The Fields were my haven, my best friend, the only place that resonated with my spirit.
But, in this case, all good things would come to an end. I started having one particular nightmare as I entered into the turbulent age of the “pre-teen.” I was hovering over the fields on a magic carpet, watching, in horror, as my favorite tree, dubbed “Goldenbark,” was bulldozed down and replaced by a road that wound through the fields, also cutting through my favorite hideout, “The Cave,” where the namesake cave had long since eroded into a hill after a severe rainstorm. Every nook that I had known—The Cave, Devil’s Hill, the trail with black dirt that led to the broken down couch where Bloody Mary was rumored to live—all of it was erased and suddenly I was looking upon row upon row of identical buildings.
“For there is a cloud on my horizon. A small, dark cloud no bigger than my hand. Its name is Progress.” -Edward Abbey
Unfortunately, that nightmare became a reality. The Fields, as they once were, are now a housing development. Once again, the profit of the market overshadowed the value of the earth. My hallowed hideouts now only lingering in my memory.
Langston Hughes once asked what happens to a dream deferred. “Does it explode?”
As I watch the media, drugs, and an all-around indifference take over the lives of younger generations…heck, even my generation, I am forced to wonder if a dream deferred implodes, leaving its owner in a state of apathy…or worse, as a black hole consuming the light and substance of others. In fact, there appear to be two main evils: those indifferent to the world’s beauty and those actively destroying it. Those absorbed in meaningless reality shows, in one haze of a high after another, and those greedily paving over fields to slap together cheap houses to sell for far more than what they are worth.
Nobody seems to know what they want out of life anymore. There seems to be a lack of goals. Of passion. Is this being purposefully orchestrated by the higher-ups of our society, or is this just a natural side-effect of “progress?”
Either way, I have stood by mutely long enough. Wake up people! Stop drugging yourselves—both literally and through the media and materialism. The keys to life can be found in nature. Your mission, to reclaim your “life” can only be initiated when you clear your mind and open your eyes. We are given one brief shot at this life, and I, for one, don’t want to spend that life enslaved and unaware. I want to spend it thoughtful, reflective, informed...as free as I can be! I don’t want to watch the fate of the The Fields be repeated everywhere.
“Our journey here on earth…is the most strange and daring of all adventures.”
–Edward Abbey
Let us embark on this adventure, let us fight for a more informed, more impassioned, more meaningful life. This is our mission...will we choose to accept?
"Is this being purposefully orchestrated by the higher-ups of our society?" I believe it is, and these higher-ups are the sociopaths. They are ancient, well-organized, deceptive, cunning, and uncaring. Most of all, they are harmful to other life. They are parasites. They are aware of how they differ from us, whereas we are not aware of it, which puts us at a great disadvantage. They keeps us ignorant, withholding the truth. And they convince us that we can't handle the truth. But they lie. It's not that we can't handle the truth. It's that they can't handle us if we know the truth.
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