What if the earth is a single being, and all 6 billion of us are merely her cells? Perhaps she is right-hand dominant, so one side of her continents are stronger than the other half. Perhaps our houses and buildings are the root hairs that guard and protect each cell. Maybe our TVs, computers and telephone lines are meant to serve as neurotransmitters; while cars and airplanes are lipids and nutrient carriers. Maybe evil on earth is like fat in the digestive process: we need a little to stimulate digestion - some spice to make things interesting - yet too much clogs our arteries and prisons. Or perhaps the world is one big hard drive, and we are the minuscule bits of binary data that contribute to files which are organized in politically or religiously like-minded folders inside specific applications of race and nationality. And whose computer is it anyway?
Is the Earth having a midlife crisis?
If the Earth was personified as a single human being, that person would be going through a mid-life crisis right about now. Think about it - she's had her Golden Age of infant bliss where it was okay to run around naked in the Garden of Eden and have people take snapshots of her naked in her baby bathtub.
During her terrible-twos the Earth noticed her environment for the first time and went out to explore it, putting pretty much anything she found in her mouth and destroying many of her toys.
As a little girl she played hide and seek with the neighbor kids and bears and cavemen and guarded her property on her side of the sandbox, becoming angry and possessive when anyone threatened to take her land or her children away from her.
As a preteen the Earth spent more time on religion, Sunday school, Hebrew school and medieval chant because she was told it was a right of passage into becoming both a better human being and society, and if she disagreed she might be beheaded, disowned or ex-communicated from the village or Monarchy.
As a teenager the Earth indulged her hedonistic side with Italian Renaissance and Victorian architecture as well as flamboyant clothing, vanity and a few flirtatious trysts...
As a determined college student, she proclaimed her independence from the mother country in search of a more perfect union with the type of pioneering spirit and energy that only occurs during one's first few years being independent in a new world.
In her mid to late 20's the Earth lost that college student's innocence and realized that everything in her life was not as ideal and just as she had hoped, and she was forced to fight a civil war within herself to determine what "freedom" actually meant to her.
In her 30's the Earth began to blossom and leave behind the awkwardness of youth in favor of a more sophisticated lifestyle with increased travel and mobility. However, not all that was sophisticated and modern was necessarily good for her, and she faced some of her worst grand scale conflicts ever, which came close to destroying her forever.
And now, in middle age, as the Earth reaches the age where people begin to burnout from all their hard work and ponder the meaning of life and neglected relationships , Mother Earth can look back at the girl she once was and the technical progress she has made and see that still, all is not yet ideal. And like an old woman wishing to be 18 again, she will likely reminisce how nice it was to run barefoot in her perfect garden below the mountains, drinking in the unpolluted spring water and fresh air, watching sunsets and sunrises while telling stories and singing songs around a fire with people she loves and who love her, where words are never really necessary.
Perhaps, in this next New Age, she may yet return, once more.
L.A. Kessler
March 2000
Earth Cycles
From the ground up,
Or the sky down,
Growth occurs,
The earth rotates,
Life cycles.
This place we live,
This mass we inhabit,
These resources we use,
Our playground for life.
Out of the soil flowers grow,
Petals blossom,
Aromas fill the air.
Flowers speak to us-
In not so many words.
We climb trees,
Build tree houses,
Swing on the branches,
Find comfort in the arms of a tree.
We sit outside looking up,
Watching the clouds as they pass by,
Using our imagination to develop stories, ideas, thoughts.
We dream.
Bare feet run across the grass,
The early morning dew sprinkling each toe,
The blades of grass tickling the bottom of the foot,
Bright green and colorful.
The sun shines down,
Illuminating one thing,
While hiding another with the power of a shadow.
The sun provides warmth, internally and externally.
The sun smiles.
Stars shine brightly,
Connecting together to form shapes and pictures.
The moon always changing,
Following cycles, providing light.
On occasion when the sun goes away and angry clouds fill the air,
It rains.
Thunder roars,
Lightening strikes.
But it is all a cycle,
A life cycle,
A system that must use everything to keep going,
One thing dependent on another for survival.
We are part of this cycle,
We use the system to get what we want,
We allow it to provide enjoyment, make believe, a fantasy world.
We allow it to become the playground for our life.
Katie Garrett
March 2000