These days, it’s easy to despair. Global warming is bad enough, but with Trump and the Republicans in Congress accelerating the process, it seems pretty hopeless.
Yet, as Bernie Sanders says, despair is not an option.
I have a favorite Bible passage. It is my favorite because it so perfectly describes the choice in front of us, and because it tells us, rationally and unequivocally, which choice to make.
Deut. 30:19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live…
We must choose life for the sake of our children. We are programmed by our DNA, which, like the DNA for all other life forms, contains forceful instructions for perpetuating itself. Caring for our children and our descendants to the 7th generation is blueprinted into us.
When we focus on ourselves instead of on making the future habitable, we are denying our DNA. Robert Jay Lifton studied this phenomenon in Hiroshima survivors. He called it psychic numbing. Giving up on the future is a form of suicide. We may live in relative comfort, but our DNA will not perpetuate itself.
We are living to the fullest when we choose life, and don’t worry about the outcome. Our chances of reversing the onrushing disasters of climate change are maximized if we put love of our children ahead of self-love, and put our whole hearts and souls into the battle against the forces of destruction.
Right now, opposing Trump is all-important, but our priorities are still off. Strategically, the defeat of Trumpcare worked well to slow his juggernaut. But the hot button issue should be his assault on the environment, which is ruining the biosphere.
The focus on health care is basically narcissistic. Health care protects the DNA in the body of the individual, rather than caring for the survival of the species. At this point in human history, we should be concentrating on stopping global warming and nuclear pollution before they kill us and most of the other life forms on this unique planet. Planet Earth is precious, because it is the home of life.
I believe in a Creative Force in the universe, The Creator for short. This Force brings order out of chaos, reverses entropy, and makes universal laws, such as gravity, e=mc squared, evolution. These laws in turn lead to galaxies, stars, planets, life.
The Creator made life, and fosters growth, healing, ecological balance.
The Creator made us, made human intelligence and language, and has communicated laws for humans through the sacred traditions, oral or written, of most cultures.
All true religions explicitly recognize a Creative force. All true religions recognize that a good person is holy, whatever they believe. True religions are those which respect the central message of their tradition, which is always about love, peace, respect for The Creator and for life.
Any religious group which claims to have the exclusive path to The Creator is false. Any religious group which advocates hatred of The Other, war and killing, materialism over higher values, is false. Any religion which has allied itself to the temporal power of a state is false. In other words, most of what passes for religion these days is false.
Unfortunately, many people have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. In rightfully rejecting established institutions of religions, they deny that there is a Creative force. This cuts them off from the Source of creativity.
An ebook shows how all the sacred messages of the world connect with one another to form a sacred hoop. Many of them contain prophecies about our dark times, and say there will be a crisis, during which people will turn to The Creator, like sailors on a sinking ship. We will receive The Creator’s wisdom and be saved, and emerge into a brighter future.
We must be nearing that crisis. Like alcoholics in AA, we must admit that our circumstances are beyond our control, and turn to our higher power for help. This means praying, which means putting ego aside and asking for what we need now- wisdom, clarity, courage, ability to make sacrifices and endure hardship. We need a lot of help, and must have faith that we will get it, if only we humble ourselves and ask.
I find the prophecies comforting. Here’s a good one:
There was an old lady, from the “Cree” tribe, named “Eyes of Fire”, who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans’ or Yo-ne-gis’ greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist…
…There would come a time when the “keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs” would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankind’s key to survival, they were the “Warriors of the Rainbow”. There would come a day of awakening when all the peoples of all the tribes would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom, and recognition of the Great Spirit…
The Water Protectors who courageously fought the Dakota Access Pipeline to a standstill for almost a year are Warriors of the Rainbow. They put their comfort and even lives on the line for the sake of future generations. We would do well to follow their example.
Let us choose life, for ourselves and our children.
Be prepared, and always choose life.