At the end of all things
(Lifted from Turning Points' If the World Was Ending, What Would Your Last Message Be? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/opinion/your-last-message.html)
"The world, as I know it, is ending. I close my eyes and again experience the wonder of the rain forest, the murmuring streams, the rustling leaves and the myriad sounds of animal life, chirping and singing and buzzing. Flashes of color; birds, butterflies, fish shining in the water. Monkeys feeding overhead. The smell of damp earth and flowers. Each species, no matter how small, playing its part in the rich tapestry of life. I move my mind’s eyes to the wetlands, the mountains, the coral reefs, the golden prairies. The sun glittering on the Arctic ice. The pine trees of the cliffs I climbed as a child. In these few minutes the beauty of the world I once knew is real again.
I open my eyes reluctantly. I am surrounded by land and water that is dead, polluted, plundered. The natural world destroyed. Our cities collapsed. Nature has hit back at we humans, who so greedily stole her riches, with hurricanes, floods, droughts, fires and earthquakes.
But suddenly I realize that though the Earth may seem destroyed, it is alive in my mind. And I am aware of another kind of beauty: that of the indomitable human spirit. The lust for greed and power has destroyed the beauty we inherited, but altruism, compassion and love have not been destroyed. All that is beautiful in humanity has not been destroyed. The beauty of our planet is not dead but lying dormant, like the seeds of a dead tree. We shall have another chance." -- Jane Goodall
Pic Credit: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/12/01/world/04TP-BIGQUESTION-INYT/04TP-BIGQUESTION-INYT-master768.jpg
