(no subject)
An answer to a question about inspiration and nature put forth to illustrator Jeffrey Fisher in issue number 4 of Elephant Magazine had me laughing out loud when I read it because Fisher put into words how I have been feeling about the scope of our destruction of the environment, particularly the bit in bold below. Here's the question and then Fisher's answer:
Elephant: I know this sounds a bit like a daft question, but does nature inspire you?
JF: "Certainly I fee it does inspire me, though I'm not sure how. It is particularly embarrasing & depressing what we are doing to the place, I don't believe our brains are capable of dealiing with the complexity of our destruction, it's probably better we go quite soon, before we completely destroy everything. But I only think that, I don't do anything much to try & arrest it. In fact, I don't even care what I think. I feel so flawed."
That part about human beings not being able to understand the complexity of our destruction is so absolutely true. Without a real concerted effort on our part to see past our own immediate wants, needs, political agendas, and greed, there's little that will be done about the overall situation. Our day to day universes are usually very narrowly focused on survival: keeping the job, food ont he table, shelter, etc... As individuals, sure, we can do what we can, but most often, the odds are that we feel overwhelmed when we think about the enormity of the situation. That's when it becomes important to do what we can in our own lives, if we care enough about having a livable planet in the first place.