Nature… According to Blue Oyster Cult

There is a line in the song “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult. which has stayed with me for years. You remember them. More cowbell!!!! If that quote means nothing to you SNL is probably also a mystery. However… The line is “History shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of men”. Folly means lack of good sense. Foolishness. Choosing actions with no practical purpose. Pretty much sums up everything if you ask me.

Throughout history, mankind (yes man…) has tried to dominate the world and even the space outside of our world. There is excitement and euphoria as newer and better ideas come into being and people jump on board with each innovation that comes our way. We look to the future with great anticipation. And yet, when the future becomes now, we are complacent. The idea becomes mainstream. Or we wish to improve on it. Whatever is done to revolutionize our lives often has a down side which we either don’t anticipate or, we often just ignore.

Refrigerators. Initial ice boxes. Kept food fresh longer. Then electrical fridges came along. More reliable. Less labour intensive. But the dark side. No, not just the increased need for electricity. Rather the ability to store huge amounts of fresh food. How much gets thrown away? Wasted. Rotting in the back recesses of the fridge. The old wringer washers. Very labour intensive. And so we wore clothes more than once. We washed them less and so they lasted longer. We used less water and what we used was poured out back into the earth, Cars are now bigger and better. Faster and more powerful. They feed our need to save time. Get there now. The costs to Momma earth are astronomical both in their production and their usage. But the glitter wears off fast so many buy new after a few years. Our roadways are always ever expanding to accommodate our need to travel. The first flights were amazing. Now its so common place. No more yearly camping vacation with the family. Airline trips are quarterly as people escape their humdrum lives. Homes are bigger and bigger. Almost to incredible unmanageable sizes. Every time saving device is utilized and yet… We have no time.

We look back to simpler times with nostalgia but we gloss over the hard work that went into living. It seems impossible to even think about giving up our modern conveniences. Its always the next guy. Governments need to fix it. The rich need to pay more. Other people are always to blame. Recently, I went on a motorbike trip with a friend. The first few days it was cold and rainy. Then blistering hot for a few days. The last few days were so hazy with wildfire smoke I struggled to breathe. We were stopped for close to an hour due to a fire up the mountain from the highway we were on. The traffic lined up either side of the stoppage was incredible. We took it in stride. This is the world we live in now. It is hot and its on fire. And yet… Just a few short months ago California was flooding. Last year the trip I was on would have been plagued with stoppages due to flooding up here in Cannuck Ville.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. We tend to downplay negatives when we look forward. Remember the show “The Graduate” with Dustin Hoffman? He played a young man named Benjamin who recently graduated from college and is unsure of what comes next. The one conversation that stands out in that movie is almost horrifying to me now.

Mr. McGuire “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.”

Benjamin “Yes Sir”

Mr. McGuire “Are you listening?”

Benjamin “Yes I am.”

Mr. McGuire “Plastics.”

Benjamin “Exactly how do you mean?”

Mr. McGuire “There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”

And now where are we? Plastics have taken over our lives. There are massive islands of plastics and garbage floating in the oceans as we contentedly go about our hedonistic lives consuming and throwing away. Mountains of junk clog waterways and land throughout the third world nations as we ship our refuse away from our own lives. We create more and more throw away products, and we work harder and harder to buy more and more items, which we will ultimately toss long before their usefulness has expired.

Every aspect of our lives has been leading us into this time of our world. An entire town in Hawaii was destroyed by fire? Why? Partly due to non native grasses which are just waiting for a spark and some wind. There are invasive species everywhere that edge out the native plants. Why? Again, no forward thinking. Even tree planting by those who wish to help can also have devastating affects if the trees are not native to the environment. California before being settled by Europeans was home to monstrous redwoods. Those gentle giants we walk around in awe. Now the largest population of tree’s is oak. They are edging out the natural pine forests. Fire in California was historically used by the indigenous to control the landscape. Pine for example needs fire to rejuvenate. The cones are opened through excess heat and the seeds dispersed. Rivers are dammed. Ground waters are depleted. All in the name of growing to excess in areas needing irrigation.

Nature takes care of herself. Oh she may let us mess with her for awhile. And now and again she sends a little admonition, like a gentle warning from a mother. And we pay attention…For awhile. But then we move on without ever changing our ways. Then something big happens. A huge catastrophe and we are all on high alert. Oh we are secretly glad it happened to someone else in another part of the world. Or even another part of the country. Briefly. It scares us. We talk about it for awhile. “Remember the summer of 20 whatever? Fires were crazy that year!” But now it is every year. New Yorkers and the Eastern states complaining about smoke from Canada. We have been sucking back smoke here in Alberta every year from all along the west coast for years. All the way from B.C. down to California. It just drifts and it sucks.

So what’s the answer? Number one I think it important the understand and accept this most important thing. In a tussle behind mankind and Mother nature, in the end… She will always win. Remember that one very important detail. Momma will have the last word and we will be punished if we keep sassing. And not just bed without supper. She’s gonna go old school and send in the big guns. A whipping with a belt. Number two. No one is going to fix it for us. Not the government. Not big business. Not Big Agriculture. Can’t sit back and blame the Chinese. That attitude that we are one cog and not doing anything that bad is what caused all of this in the first place. China’s heavy pollution came about through their huge economic growth via the North American and first world thirst for more and more cheap crap. Perhaps everyone needs to take an economics class. Or let me break it down for you here. Supply and demand. First day in Econ 101. That’s it. If we don’t buy it they won’t make it. Don’t get me wrong, I know we didn’t mean to destroy our world. We were tricked in many ways. The incredible surge of the advertising industry let us believe we needed everything. But here is the thing. Now that we know better shouldn’t we do better?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Little things matter. In all aspects of life. When the United States voted in their new president in 2016 we were not particularly impressed. We chose to stop our visit to that country for the duration. I also decided that I was going to actively pursue shopping for products that were not produced in the U.S. Well, the majority of my food purchases are organic. Trying to buy organic without buying from the U.S. was nearly impossible. I did find organic ketchup that was produced in the Czech Republic. So we bought that. Not environmentally kosher but at that point it was more of a political statement. I check labels on everything now. And apparently so do many others. Now, several years later there is an abundance of food from other countries and even my own country and province. We can change corporations through our habits. It takes time but in the end it is truly affective.

So think about your own life. Laundry is done as a chore. Often we leave things in the washer or dryer and then wash and dry a second time. As I child we had laundry day. Today, I wash clothes once a week. I remember when my washer konked out a few years back. I went to a laundry mat and washed all of the clothes. Dried them. Folded everything and came home with a full laundry basket ready to put away. I was in the Zen zone. Sort. Start the washers. Get a coffee from the Cafe’ next door. Read my book. Transfer to the dryer. Keep reading. Fold. Go home. Three hours of my life spent reading a book and having a coffee. I wouldn’t do that at home. I bought a square clothes line awhile back. The stand rests underground but is flush with the ground. Easy to take the top of the unit down to mow the lawn or store when not needed. I plan to install that soon. When the ADHD brain lets me. Remember that beautiful smell of fresh laundry off the line? Today we have so many clothes because we think it puts off laundry day. But it just causes more laundry days. If we take care of our clothes and wash them less they last longer. We save money on clothes, detergent, water, electricity.

I plant a small garden every year. Sometimes things grow well and sometimes not. Tomatoes have a mind of their own on my garden and I cannot keep up with them. Lettuce and zucchini have always been out of hand through the years. I have a wonderful chocolate zucchini cake recipe that takes care of part of that problem. Healthy. Cheap. Freezable. And most importantly… Yummy. Potatoes are hit and miss as are carrots. I rebuilt all of the raised beds this year and I hope to have a fence put up in the early spring. I’m tired of sharing with the deer. Ayurveda, whose history claims to be thousand of years old, is considered a pseudoscience. Part of the diet is to eat meals spaced apart to allow better digestion. Avoid snacking. Largest meal at lunchtime. Combine certain foods. But this way of eating has been around in many cultures. Proteins combined with starches. Beans and rice, pasta and cheese, potatoes and meat. We have come to rely on fast food because we are so busy. But its not healthy. And its not cheap. Our lives are killing us. Mentally and physically. Slowly but surely.

Our thoughts and words are incredibly powerful. What we say and think becomes real for us. The world is out of control. Things are more dangerous. Life is too expensive. Everyone is angry. These words become our reality. Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to rewire itself. What we think say and do forms neural pathways. If we are negative we can change that by trying to change both our behaviours and our thoughts. Our entire belief systems are based on thoughts that we chose. Not necessarily reality. If we change our thoughts our patterns can follow suit. Life isn’t too busy. We place the chaos on ourselves. We believe it and so it is. We can slow down. We can go barefoot in the park. We can grow some food. We can chose 3 meals a day. We can buy less clothing. We can spend more time reading and less on social media. We can cuddle more and clean less. We can delegate to our kids. We can chose peace and hapiness. We can chose to change our behaviours to better our own lives and health. But in the end if we slow down, calm down, worry less about what others have… in time our health will improve, our mental health will improve and ultimately Momma Earth will get better. Do we need tasteless raspberries in the winter? Or is the pure joy of eating them off the plant at peak freshness something to be anticipated and enjoyed. My overabundance of tomatoes gives me homemade pasta sauce which I can freeze for those long winter months when some comfort food is greatly needed. But there is nothing finer that that first tomatoe sandwich in the summer. White soft bread. A little butter. The tomatoe warm from the sun, sliced and put on top of the bread. A little salt and pepper. Mmmmm! Bliss.

Our quest for instant and new has us created a world that is fighting back. But it has robbed us of the small niceties. Sitting down for supper with your family and eating slowly while you visit and talk about your day. Doing dishes with a child as they share one on one time with a parent. All the while teaching them a chore. Letting kids help with making meals. Its a bonding time but more importantly its building sweet memories. They won’t remember the numerous fast food treats you had for supper but they will remember when you take the time to include them in the routines of the home. Going for walks in the evening as a family. Slow is the word of the day, the year, the decade and the century. Slow down. Modern convenience were made to help us enjoy life. Life should be so beautiful we need not escape it. A family trip should be something we plan and look forward to as something new and exciting. Not a monthly getaway from anxiety time. What I have learned is that its the little things. If we want to help ourselves and the earth we need to change. Our thoughts. Our behaviours. Our blaming others. Our expectations. Most importantly, our attitude. We are not special. We are all important yet not more important than anyone else. When we finally understand that we are all connected and not fighting against each other, only then will we be able to help our world heal. We need each other now more than ever before. Life is beautiful. We are blessed to spend time here on this incredible planet. Do yourself and Momma nature a favour. Do your part. However small. Because nature has and will continue to point out the folly of men. Until its too late… Blue Oyster Cult told us this a long time ago. Let’s listen.