“Living more [Sustainably] is not just where you come from. It’s also how you think, how you treat others and the world that surrounds you, and what you treasure” Scandinavisk. I saw this in a catalog for organic, earth-friendly products. What I liked about it was that it was a selection of voices that talked about products, but focused on aspects of a technological world; but more than that, ‘a world where community, consciousness, timeless values of trust, equality,and respect thrive.’ A place where human ’inhabitants place the greatest priority on life balance, on fellowship, family and friends, and on everyday moments of shared happiness.’ This was something our indigenous ancestors experienced without high technology. I think we can experience it again with appropriate technology. A new beautiful level of the human experience.
Again, as I talk about learning from our indigenous roots,it’s not how they actually lived but how they interacted with each other and the natural world from a place of abundance,sharing,and collaboration. We currently live from a place of scarcity and competition that breeds greed and indifference.
The following is from the writings of American Indian, actor and writer, Chief Dan George (in italics and “ ”)
“In the course of my lifetime I have lived in two distinct cultures. I was born into a culture that lived in communal houses. My grandfather’s house was eighty feet long. It was called a smoke house, and it stood down by the beach along the inlet. All my grandfather’s sons and their families lived in this dwelling. Their sleeping apartments were separated by blankets made of bull rush weeds, but one open fire in the middle served the cooking needs of all. In houses like these, throughout the tribe, people learned to live with one another; learned to respect the rights of one another. And children shared the thoughts of the adult world and found themselves surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins who loved them and did not threaten them. My father was born in such a house and learned from infancy how to love people and be at home with them.”
Notice how he talks about the communal aspects of living. What I find intriguing is how they lived as a collaborative group, maintaining a kind of sovereign independence while living communally. I don’t think we need to be ‘herded’ into what the Brits call ‘15 minute cities’ of hierarchical control, but a different way of living is certainly needed. Another aspect given was how children were ‘taught’ and ‘learned’ from the wisdom of all the adults and not just family members or specified ‘educators’ within the group, not that there weren’t experts who would convey their skills to others.
“And beyond this acceptance of one another there was a deep respect for everything in nature that surrounded them. My father loved the earth and all its creatures. The earth was his second mother. The earth and everything it contained was a gift from See-see-am…and the way to thank this great spirit was to use his gifts with respect.
I remember, as a little boy, fishing with him up Indian River and I can still see him as the sun rose above the mountain top in the early morning…I can see him standing by the water’s edge with his arms raised above his head while he softly moaned…”Thank you, thank you.” It left a deep impression on my young mind.
And I shall never forget his disappointment when once he caught me gaffing for fish “just for the fun of it.” “My son” he said, “The Great Spirit gave you those fish to be your brothers, to feed you when you are hungry. You must respect them. You must not kill them just for the fun of it.” This then was the culture I was born into and for some years the only one I really knew or tasted. This is why I find it hard to accept many of the things I see around me.”
I feel that these two paragraphs hit home at what is really the crux of our problems today. We have lost respect for most things, including ourselves. It is not to point a finger at anyone, but an observation that this is how we have been conditioned to live in the world. And a lot of that is encompassed within a loss of meaning in our lives – we are hedonistic and this is exacerbated by modern technology, especially social media, and its focus on the ego-self. This naturally brings me back around to another of my central solutions for sustainability – the need to live more spiritually and with a sense of connection to the world and all life.
That might seem alien to anyone still entrenched in a materialistic-consumerist worldview, but consider how hedonistic and devoid of meaning is this worldview. We seek pleasure and things to distract us from the seeming nothingness that life seems to hold with its lack of connection – creating a sense of isolation and loneliness. One of the worst things today is to live in an affluent society but not to be affluent, and to have few real connections except to other people in the same condition. That is, until we realize that there is something greater than ourselves that can give us meaning and hence connection.
“I see people living in smoke houses hundreds of times bigger than the one I knew. But the people in one apartment do not even know the people in the next and care less about them. It is also difficult for me to understand the deep hate that exists among people. It is hard to understand a culture that justifies the killing of millions in past wars, and it is at this very moment preparing bombs to kill even greater numbers. It is hard for me to understand a culture that spends more on wars and weapons to kill, than it does on education and welfare to help and develop. It is hard for me to understand a culture that not only hates and fights his brothers but even attacks nature and abuses her. I see my white brothers going about blotting out nature from his cities. I see him strip the hills bare, leaving ugly wounds on the face of mountains. I see him tearing things from the bosom of mother earth as though she were a monster, who refused to share her treasures with him. I see him throw poison in the waters, indifferent to the life he kills there; and he chokes the air with deadly fumes.
My white brother does many things well for he is more clever than my people but I wonder if he has ever really learned to love at all. Perhaps he only loves the things that are outside and beyond him. And this is, of course, not love at all, for man must love all creation or he will love none of it. Man must love fully or he will become the lowest of the animals. It is the power to love that makes him the greatest of them all…for he alone of all animals is capable of love.”
One common observation by many spiritual gurus is that current global humanity is very smart and ingenious with great intellect, but doesn’t seem to understand true intelligence that comes with wisdom! Nature is intelligent but obviously doesn’t have what we call ‘intellect.’ Yet, as our natural world scientists are realizing, the complexities of the natural world reveal incredible adaptations of life to the environment in which it lives. All of life has feedback mechanisms built in that work – any that don’t disappear. Only humans think they can create their own system that exists outside the natural one. Or have we? We are as subject to the laws of nature as all life, and our inappropriate technologies have created the problematic world we see today.
It would seem that our myriad ecological problems show us clearly how our human system is failing. We have come to rely on technocrats that focus on monetary profit without the wisdom to know that just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do it! If we stop competing with the natural world, we might find solutions. This is indeed true when one considers the ‘Biomimicry’ movement. Yet there is one more ingredient given by Chief Dan George that he says quite clearly – Love!
To Be Continued ………………….
“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure” Victor Frankl.
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