we've got the whole wide world in our hands......

I've always been under the impression that there was a reason why we are all here. In my opinion, I think it has much to do with evolution; as well as powers beyond our imagination of who God is. Without a good mixture of both, we would probably fail at surviving. Stay with me here... I know this sounds a little freaky. To me, our "God" is everything around us: the sun and the air, the land and the sea. We are but visitors here, just as everything else was before man made his first appearance. Somehow our species managed to evolve due to the careful ingredients of God and evolution. Our brains expansion along with the capacity to communicate made our species the smartest because of this intelligence. But being so smart has not helped to pay off a future for us, as we are destroying our God in the process.

For nations to come under attack against each other perpetuates the demise of our species (remember us, the intelligent ones?), as well as the very ground we stand on. Most of these conflicts come about because of religious beliefs.... and who's got the better "God". What's forgotten in the process is that "God is all around us"....... have we forgotten one of the first rules of religion? It's the only one theory I hold from my former days as a Catholic..... I did believe in that one. Here's where I differ from most, and my agnostic beliefs surface. If God was all around us, then he was in everything; he was our magical exlixer for a better life...... not a long, long life, just a better one. He was also in my heart in the way I treated my fellow man. He was in the ground we stood on, making the Earth habitable for our species to thrive. He was in the sun and air, allowing us to adapt to the atmosphere that holds our life. He was in the good and bad things we need to learn in order to survive. These survival techniques became our "evolution" into who and what we are today.

Somehow, we still do not heed the message of God..... and to me, it's not some man on his throne who lives in the clouds of heaven...... it's the God of "earth", in which we have found random ways to destroy the land. And now it seems like "it's" found ways to come back and bite us in the butt. Due to the many ways we've polluted our environment, raped and pillaged its forests, and dumped our wastes in the oceans...... is it to no wonder how the weather is effected by this. The earth is still a fragile planet that has taken a lot of guff from our species, but everyday it finds ways to fight back and place warnings to the greatest of our minds. It becomes scary to think we are not paying more attention to these warnings.

In two days we will celebrate Earth Day. In searching wikipedia on the web, there are a couple of versions how Earth Day was started, but there is no doubt that business manager of the Nobell Research Foundation, John McConnell had a big hand in the efforts we see today. He designed the first Earth Day Flag, and introduced the idea at a 1969 UNESCO Conference on the Environment in San Francisco. It was determined that the vernal equinox that marks the precise moment that spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, would be a perfect day to celebrate. At this global moment, both day and night are equal lengths everywhere on earth. At the South Pole, the sun sets, bringing an end to the six month long day, while at the North Pole, the sun rises, ending six months of continuous darkness. If you were to stand a pole perfectly vertical at the equater, no visible shadow would show. It was the equilibrium where differences were to be forgotten and nature's renewal would be celebrated by all.

In 1970, the original date set around March 21st ( the vernal equinox), got changed to April 22nd as the new date to celebrate Earth Day. This day is coincident with Arbor Day that started in the 1800's. Laws were passed by Congress in the wake of 1970 Earth Day, including the Clean Air Act. These laws would protect our drinking water, wild lands and the ocean..... and in this wake, the EPA was created in 1973.

So thanks to the efforts of a few good men (who were paying attention), we are aware that we need to replace the things we take away, and quit destroying the things here that are bountiful to our nature. But we do have a long way to go. An effort by all of us here who haibitate this planet, makes it our duty to keep it clean and safe for the next generations behind us. My generation dropped the ball. We were supposed to send our greatest minds out there in 1975 to make the world better and safer environmentally. Plans of wind power and electric cars were supposed to be part of our society today.... isn't that what the salutatorians speech was all about at our high school graduation? We failed, because the greedy 80's and 90's were more appealing. Yeah, we did get that nasty smoke out of the air, and the quality of breathing did get better. Our rivers and oceans are supposed to be cleaner than they were in the 60's and 70's......but I state once again, we do have a long way to go.

I am fortunate to live in a town that takes this very seriously. We have regular recycling pick-up, as well as a center where you can bring just about everything to (except household garbage, as that's picked up seperately). I make my monthly trecks to our center one mile away and unload all my cardboard, plastic bags, magazines, used oil , batteries, plastic containers, and anything else they'll take. You can even bring old appliances there for a dumping fee. They crush everything down and have it trucked off to a plant that will recucle it into something usable again. In a disposable society, this is an important element to the cycle of garbage. Americans put out about 30% of the world's garbage, and although we only constitute 5% of the worlds population, we consume 24% of the worlds energy. We're the biggest bad guys of them all, unless we change the way we use up and dispose of our resources.

So if you've stayed with me so far, I'd like to leave a few parting words with you.......

"May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."
~ U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations: 1961- 1971

"Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choice in ecology, economics, and the ethics that will provide a sustainable future; eliminate pollution, poverty, and the violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster the peaceful progress in the human adventure."
~ John McConnell

No cards need to be sent out for this day.... all we can hope for is that everyone plants a seed, grows a garden or cleans up their act, because, after all, if we don't take care of what's in our hands today, we risk extinction of everyones God tomorrow.