In this fractured world, why care? What is the point of caring in a world where humans cannot accept themselves, much less anything–or anyone–else?
We live in a world in crisis, and this crisis does not refer to just climate woes or social inequity. Rather, we live in a crisis of home, a crisis of the soul where people are encouraged to define their lives by the extent to which they achieve their dreams. The earth is merely a backdrop to a larger story in which humans are somehow architects of a brand-new future. Whose future and for whom?
It is often said that the children are the future. How is that possible? Is not the future contingent on today? As a species, all humans can do is live in the here and now because that is all that has ever existed.
The future is a mirage, a carrot dangling before us, and it is always just out of…………reach. Why care………….about now? Now is the only quantifiable experiential space that exists, and yet the space of now is invisible. Where does it begin? When does it end? How was it created?
While they appear abstract, these questions serve as the ethic upon which EcoDialogues rests. How can existential questions add value? Because the internal and external spaces of our lives have been co-created by a constellation of cosmic and everyday forces that stretch across billions of years.
Why care…………about now? Because now is all that has ever existed. It is always now, and yet there is no clear demarcation between past and future, which highlight the importance of accountability. We are all responsible for now, which is a shared space divided by perspective and experience.
Why care…………at all? Because everyone, every animal, every tree, every leaf, every molecule, everything everywhere in every place in every space has value, even if now presents us with challenges that threaten to break us individually or collectively.
Why care…………about everything? It is not clear where you or I begin or end, nor is it clear how the past affected our present. In a world intent on encouraging us to judge, critique, and dissect our differences (of perspective and experience), perhaps the most radical action to which we can commit ourselves rests in our ability to embrace our shared internal and external spaces.
How can we embrace these spaces?
Write us at info@ecodialogues.org and share your thoughts. We will add contributions to this dialogue.