SEEING

Fasten your seat belts dear readers, we're in for a bumpy ride. This blog is intense. My blog mentor says everyone is allowed to do a rant once in awhile! This began as an email to someone very dear to me who is willing to listen when I am feeling pain about our world, but I decided to put it up as a blog since I'm doing this now. Nothing pretty in this one. I promise you there will be again in the next one. If you are someone that can handle looking at difficult realizations, then read on. Forgive me in advance if it's too much information.

Sometimes seeing what is going on sucks. Watching an avalanche and there is absolutely nothing you can do except watch as it destroys things. That's what it felt like yesterday.

I was starting to work on the blog about how being caught up in the moment can stop us from looking at the consequences of our action, and I was trying to pussyfoot around so I wouldn't offend anyone when what I really wanted to do was shake people and yell WE'VE GOT TO STOP KILLING! NOW!!!!!! I had just read several new reports on the rate of extinction going berserk because of the way we are stripping this planet and it is now up to one new species going extinct EVERY THREE HOURS! What??? The avalanche. And there seems to be no way to get people to really LOOK at how they are contributing to this. I drove by store after store on my way through town where people were happily buying and buying and buying, with no thought to what that is doing in the world. They want a pair of jeans that makes their butt look cute. Do they think about the rainforest being cut to grow cotton? Do they think about the pesticides going into the soil and water? Do they think about the factories spewing into the air? Of course not. Cute butt or one species every 3 hours, and cute butt wins. Over and over every day by the millions. And then they stop at Starbucks for a Latte. Do they think about the forests cut? Do they think about the pesticides? Do they think about the factories spewing? Of course not. They go home happy in their cute jeans sipping their Latte. One species every three hours. Gone. And this avalanche is only going to grow unless people suddenly en masse wake up and LOOK at what they are doing. The consequences of every single thing they do in a day. How can that happen? No-one wants to see themselves as causing harm so they just say it's not that bad, or it's not true, or it's not just them, or a million other excuses so they don't have to really look at what is happening and how they are contributing. So the avalanche continues un-abated. I want a cute butt just like everyone else, but at what cost? Wiping out other species? We've got to start seeing what we are doing. And here's the thing: I HAVE actually seen species disappear since I have lived here! It's not just happening in the jungles being cut down in Indonesia and South America to grow things for us to buy. It's happening right here in front of my eyes, on this beautiful island. So how can I pussyfoot around and try not to offend people? Me saying "please consider if you are willing" isn't going to kick anybody in the butt to make a change TODAY. And we all need to be kicked in the butt so we can see how desperate this is. I include myself in all this. I try every day to LOOK at my impact on the earth and do something about it, like driving to town while I'm thinking all this! Ayah.

Then comes a phone call about the guy who shot and killed a Hawaiian monk seal a few months ago that was one of the pregnant moms coming to Larsens to have her pup. His trial finally came up and guess what? He got off with just a 25 dollar fine! And this is an endangered species some of us are trying to save and there are only 40 left on this island!!!!! 25 bucks. Because he simply lied and said he was shooting into the air to scare it off and it was an accident. Someone I know did the necropsy. It was shot twice directly into it's body from 2 different sides. He actually shot 4 times and kept shooting till it was dead. But he said he was not shooting at it, so in spite of the evidence all he had to pay was an administration fee. Meanwhile every day I am just one of many people out there trying to keep the new pups from harm, but someone can just walk up and shoot one and there are no consequences. Unbelievable. How does this happen? How has the taking of sacred life become so inconsequential?

Then with all that shock and sadness I drove to my voice lesson to prepare for the concert I'm singing in. Bad move! I tried to just be fresh and open but my heart was cracking in half. Ayah. And it all seemed so trite after what I had just been experiencing. Who cares if I lift my larynx on my high notes. Is it going to save some creature's life? Of course not. That's where I got to in my despair. Not pretty.

So I went to my favorite place in the world and lay on the beach under the moon and wept for her, for the sea, for the trees, for the sand, for my people. I am part of this human race that is no longer paying attention. We are so far outside of seeing how we affect the earth I don't know if it's even possible to turn things around. How do you stop an avalanche? Of course I won't stop trying. I have to do everything I can possibly think of. But it seems so huge and unstoppable. That's where I was last night, and I didn't have the strength to write about it. Today is a new day and I know I just have to keep going. Keep trying to educate. Keep doing all I can myself to have a small footprint. Keep begging people to make different choices. And keep learning.............Thanks for listening, even when it's harsh.