Our species is perfectly pestilential. It is conscious, rational and imaginative. It investigates, understands and makes a plan before acting. Then it learns from the results of its actions how to achieve what it will, even engineering its own cellular defenses to cheat death. It leverages individual skill into collective competence by communicating, specializing and cooperating, joining as one, a socially-distanced super-organism, to flatten the infection curve and extend our pre-eminence as the paragon of pathogens. Look on our works, ye microbes, and despair.I know. You thought we were the victims and so we are for a time. Being victims again has been instructive. We are learning from the virus how to be human, to take only what we need. What we refer to as 'herd immunity' the virus might call 'eating your cake and saving some for later'.
This lovely, fragile planet will tolerate us yet awhile if we accept modest limits on our appetites as the price of belonging. We can't clear-cut every forest, catch all the fish, burn every last barrel of tar, and expect to live forever. It's OK to not have everything we want.
2021 could be a year to live well with less.
I guess I've followed you long enough not to be fooled quite so often. I knew where you were going. Indeed, we creatures can be called the pandemic of creation.
ReplyDeleteHere we are at year end and are beginning the parade of predictions. The "other" pandemic has already got us imagining what the "new normal" might be, once we finally get through this plague.
Most commentary agrees that we need to re-examine our wasteful practices. Many have celebrated how well we're doing at living without the excesses we'd become accustomed to in pre-pandemic times.
The question endures though: will we keep up this prudent practice, or will we bounce back and basically unlearn our new and better ways? If we don't keep on, and build on, the notion and habits of living with less, I fear we won't live so well for long. As individuals, and as communities, we can keep it up, but if we don't keep it up with loud voices!!! I fear we might still rebound out of relief at the end of the hard times.
Lots of speaking up and protesting and taking those positive steps one (and thousands) at a time must also be part of our new normal if we would vaccinate our earth against our own pestilence.
Yes. We can be the vaccine! Is that in the Bible somewhere? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI believe it is!
ReplyDelete