What Will the New Year Bring?

It is now the beginning of 2014, a new year, traditionally, for some, a time of introspection.  In my last blog entry, I wrote about the stories we have been told regarding the time of year's end.  Few, I imagine, spent much time thinking about how commercialized they have become. For many, again, there have been added thoughts as to how we have been inconvenienced by the weather.  

This year, Nature, seems to be inserting herself more and more into our lives.  We have been told approximately 100 million people have been affected by this latest extreme Winter weather here in the U.S. with which we have had, and are having, to deal, now being followed by record breaking cold.  This, following storms and weather around the world the like of which cannot be remembered.  Additionally, there have been wide-spread reports of unusual loud sounds being heard outside, which are hard to describe or identify, as well as, in some areas, the earth shaking, but, apparently, not earthquake related. 

Since one of modern humans' most basic of Indoctrinated Beliefs is that the earth is a lifeless rock, rather than a living system, we dismiss the possibility that our personal thoughts and actions might have some consequences.  Historically, the Wise Ones of the worlds' older cultures taught that the Earth was our Mother, to be treated with respect and gratitude. Except for Thanksgiving Day, which was originally meant to be such a day, and now bears little resemblance to what was originally intended, being spent immersed in food, football, and getting to the Mall to compete for wanted items.

It is hard to describe how far off Right Action we modern humans have gone in our lives.  What can be more basic than this Earth's importance to our personal day-to-day existence?  Our Education System has not educated us, nor our socialization socialized us, it has only imprisoned our minds and dulled our senses.

Those such as James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who in the '70s suggested the possibility that the Earth is a living system, were ridiculed, primarily because it refuted the idea of natural selection.

Their Gaia hypothesis proposed that Earth's living organisms and inorganic surroundings interact to form a self-regulating complex system that together contribute to maintaining conditions for life on Earth.  These conditions include global temperatures, the ocean's salinity, and the oxygen in the atmosphere, among other factors, that affect whether the Earth is habitable. (Wikipedia) 

While a number of their ideas have been incorporated in the newer science of Ecology, none ever have gone so far as to suggest the possibility that not only the Earth could actually die due to our actions, but we could also die off.  For example, little has been said about the fact that the amount of oxygen in our environment currently is barely enough to keep us alive!

The possibility that our Mother has a sense of humor has been suggested by the fact that a Global Warming Research Vessel has recently been captured in the Antarctic by the ocean freezing around it. Read all about it here  The followers of those who dispute the reality of our weather having changed will, no doubt, use this as a way of debunking the fact of how quickly and drastically weather is changing. 

Recent news is that this year, 2014, will be one of many changes.

None-the-less, Best Wishes to all for a safe and positive New Year!

Shirley Gallup