The Moth in the Room
or was that an elephant?
One day he was on his antique computer on line. He usually took a moment to glance at social media nature pages. It was a place he could post an image of a bird he couldn't figure out the human name for. It was generally a short visit and usually not a waste of time. Someone on line would know the "official" name of the bird. A name not based on any feedback from the birds or spirit since humans lack the skills to simply ask the bird what they go by. Usually an immediate response would show up with a name that generally most people could agree on.
Today however it, ... well it took a sharp turn with a rather peculiar realization. One that he had hints of before, a whisper on the wind but which really made it a point to be heard and noticed today. And that simply is - Humans are not part of Earth. We are not part of life here. We are not, and for at least all known history, have never been in balance with nature. Perhaps we used to be before history. Perhaps we could be some day in the future if we ever grow up and take the next step of evolution that everyone else on the planet seems to have already taken. But at this point in time..... No, we are not part of earth. An unwelcome intruder? More like a virus as the agent proclaims in the Matrix movie.
So what reawakened this splinter in his mind that had been festering most of his life? There was a lady on a wildlife page who shared a moth photo she had taken and wanted to know if it was a good one or a bad one? And should she kill it? Leading to the purely human concept and long discussion from many people of should we kill that species when we see them? The question was never raised of should we kill it because we are hungry and need food. It was never discussed as to whether the moth was sick or very old and needed thinned from the herd. There was no discussion of the soul of the moth offering itself for the sustenance of another life on earth. There was obviously no larger discussion of genocide and trying to wipe out an entire race. It was simply ..... "Is it Bad? Should I kill it?" - "Should We Kill it?"
He just paused dumbfounded and stared at the post as he reread all the comments.
He felt someone needed to be a voice of reason in the discussion but was so taken back at how humans thought and reacted that he didn't know what to say. This was a "Wildlife" page wasn't it? He just sat there bewildered as he read line after line, post after post, all discussing an extremely limited, purely human, idea of reality.
The idea that this moth had to die simply because of an opinion or concept in one's head. An idea that society could decide as a collective who can be killed. We could mentally release our personal responsiblity by asking an expert to do the research and offically deem who was beneficial and who was unimportant and could be put to death. Death simply because we have decided you don't serve "us" as humans. As if we were the only important race on the planet. We were completely full of ourselves with reason. Such an idea of killing doesn't seem to exist in nature. Animals kill for food. They kill with thought. They may kill to keep themselves from becoming food, to protect their young. But to kill for an idea and judgement in the head is perhaps a purely self centered human concept.
When he had read all of the peoples statements long enough his bewilderment finally congealed to one place. And he decided somebody should try and bring insight to these people on what should be a "Nature" page after all. People who might have the best hope of understanding the world we live in and actually caring about nature? So he put his fingers to task and wrote back about how everything in nature is in balance, or working towards balance. That every living thing has it's own purpose. All life counted. That when a predator killed a prey it was generally the weaker, the older, the sick of the herd that was taken down for food. That it helped keep life in balance, kept the herd strong. That death came with an understanding that it was food and help sustain another life, or many lives if there were young one's around, or even a tribe to share it with. He added that everything in nature is trying to work towards balance. That it was a purely human concept to judge a moth as good or bad and kill it for only that reason and discard the body as no use. He tried to explain how extremely out of balance that human perspective was. We were so limited in our understanding of the world around us and could not conceive of all of the ramifications of our actions. All things in nature had value whether we could conceptualize it or not. Nature made sense, had a consciousness. Humans were out of touch.
Obviously such a statement was not well received. In fact it brought only anger. The lady who started the post and put up the photo of the moth immediately fired back with rage. She finished with - if everything was in balance "What about TICKS!?" They obviously cause disease in humans and made us sick.
It only took a moment for him to realize the obvious that escaped everyone else. His response was brief and to the point. He stated that perhaps the ticks were there to try to balance the out of balance human population on the planet that were destroying everything and needed reined in.
There was no response.
Total silence after that. Had he hit a cord or did they all faint? There never was any response when he made obvious statements that nobody wanted to hear.
He did manage to get himself banned from the page though. I guess being a defender of wildlife on a wildlife page is just not popular with humans. They even boasted that no photo's or discussions of killing animals could be posted on the page. But insects didn't count somehow. He figured maybe there wasn't anyone there who understood him, or wildlife, or earth.
He had clearly pointed out the giant glaring elephant in the room that nobody wanted to see. People are so brainwashed by our out of balance culture that they can't see what is obvious. The things that any child can see. From a learned cultural perspective the statement he made was utterly absurd. It was way out of balance and borderline insanity. From the perspective of all other living beings on the earth it was all simple and straight forward. It really drove home for him the questions of who humans really are, where did we come from, why had we never evolved to be in balance with the planet yet? Were we a very young, immature, unevolved species here?
He spent a good part of the rest of the day trying to devise a catch and release mesquito trap. He thought of a tube with a suction cup that would carefully grab them out of the air and deposit them in a container to be dumped outside before they starved to death. Very much like the catch and release mouse traps. It seemed like he had it all of the mechanics figured out. Then he realized he just needed one thing to really make it work. One last minor detail. He needed a different planet. One that saw the compassion and wisdom of such a thing.
Today however it, ... well it took a sharp turn with a rather peculiar realization. One that he had hints of before, a whisper on the wind but which really made it a point to be heard and noticed today. And that simply is - Humans are not part of Earth. We are not part of life here. We are not, and for at least all known history, have never been in balance with nature. Perhaps we used to be before history. Perhaps we could be some day in the future if we ever grow up and take the next step of evolution that everyone else on the planet seems to have already taken. But at this point in time..... No, we are not part of earth. An unwelcome intruder? More like a virus as the agent proclaims in the Matrix movie.
So what reawakened this splinter in his mind that had been festering most of his life? There was a lady on a wildlife page who shared a moth photo she had taken and wanted to know if it was a good one or a bad one? And should she kill it? Leading to the purely human concept and long discussion from many people of should we kill that species when we see them? The question was never raised of should we kill it because we are hungry and need food. It was never discussed as to whether the moth was sick or very old and needed thinned from the herd. There was no discussion of the soul of the moth offering itself for the sustenance of another life on earth. There was obviously no larger discussion of genocide and trying to wipe out an entire race. It was simply ..... "Is it Bad? Should I kill it?" - "Should We Kill it?"
He just paused dumbfounded and stared at the post as he reread all the comments.
He felt someone needed to be a voice of reason in the discussion but was so taken back at how humans thought and reacted that he didn't know what to say. This was a "Wildlife" page wasn't it? He just sat there bewildered as he read line after line, post after post, all discussing an extremely limited, purely human, idea of reality.
The idea that this moth had to die simply because of an opinion or concept in one's head. An idea that society could decide as a collective who can be killed. We could mentally release our personal responsiblity by asking an expert to do the research and offically deem who was beneficial and who was unimportant and could be put to death. Death simply because we have decided you don't serve "us" as humans. As if we were the only important race on the planet. We were completely full of ourselves with reason. Such an idea of killing doesn't seem to exist in nature. Animals kill for food. They kill with thought. They may kill to keep themselves from becoming food, to protect their young. But to kill for an idea and judgement in the head is perhaps a purely self centered human concept.
When he had read all of the peoples statements long enough his bewilderment finally congealed to one place. And he decided somebody should try and bring insight to these people on what should be a "Nature" page after all. People who might have the best hope of understanding the world we live in and actually caring about nature? So he put his fingers to task and wrote back about how everything in nature is in balance, or working towards balance. That every living thing has it's own purpose. All life counted. That when a predator killed a prey it was generally the weaker, the older, the sick of the herd that was taken down for food. That it helped keep life in balance, kept the herd strong. That death came with an understanding that it was food and help sustain another life, or many lives if there were young one's around, or even a tribe to share it with. He added that everything in nature is trying to work towards balance. That it was a purely human concept to judge a moth as good or bad and kill it for only that reason and discard the body as no use. He tried to explain how extremely out of balance that human perspective was. We were so limited in our understanding of the world around us and could not conceive of all of the ramifications of our actions. All things in nature had value whether we could conceptualize it or not. Nature made sense, had a consciousness. Humans were out of touch.
Obviously such a statement was not well received. In fact it brought only anger. The lady who started the post and put up the photo of the moth immediately fired back with rage. She finished with - if everything was in balance "What about TICKS!?" They obviously cause disease in humans and made us sick.
It only took a moment for him to realize the obvious that escaped everyone else. His response was brief and to the point. He stated that perhaps the ticks were there to try to balance the out of balance human population on the planet that were destroying everything and needed reined in.
There was no response.
Total silence after that. Had he hit a cord or did they all faint? There never was any response when he made obvious statements that nobody wanted to hear.
He did manage to get himself banned from the page though. I guess being a defender of wildlife on a wildlife page is just not popular with humans. They even boasted that no photo's or discussions of killing animals could be posted on the page. But insects didn't count somehow. He figured maybe there wasn't anyone there who understood him, or wildlife, or earth.
He had clearly pointed out the giant glaring elephant in the room that nobody wanted to see. People are so brainwashed by our out of balance culture that they can't see what is obvious. The things that any child can see. From a learned cultural perspective the statement he made was utterly absurd. It was way out of balance and borderline insanity. From the perspective of all other living beings on the earth it was all simple and straight forward. It really drove home for him the questions of who humans really are, where did we come from, why had we never evolved to be in balance with the planet yet? Were we a very young, immature, unevolved species here?
He spent a good part of the rest of the day trying to devise a catch and release mesquito trap. He thought of a tube with a suction cup that would carefully grab them out of the air and deposit them in a container to be dumped outside before they starved to death. Very much like the catch and release mouse traps. It seemed like he had it all of the mechanics figured out. Then he realized he just needed one thing to really make it work. One last minor detail. He needed a different planet. One that saw the compassion and wisdom of such a thing.
A.Seriph.S
©2018
©2018