For the Record

Well, there are many nowadays who say the old lease is up on Planet Earth, and there will be evictions before a new rate is calculated. The landlord is variously characterized as God, Extraterrestrial Aliens or Mother Nature herself. Incredibly, the vast majority of people in several faith traditions are hoping they will be physically delivered from Planet Earth, and taken to some realm that truly suits their tastes. I do not deny that existence here is difficult, but we must own up to the fact that much of what makes existence difficult is the callousness and brutality of our fellow tenants. If we might prolong the conceit of this essay of the Earth being like a great house, we must consider that we share rooms with people who behave like drunken louts bashing the place to bits. However, these rapacious types never seem to lack for the rent money, or money to smooth over ill feelings about damages, so their behavior is never corrected. Then there are the rest of us, who are constantly worrying when one of these half-mad fellow boarders will decide to knock out a protective wall, vent in some un-breathable gas, pipe in some un-potable liquid, and make our portion of the house unlivable. Some of us are constantly trying to paint over the ugliness with a bit of sanity-preserving decoration, or work laboriously and skillfully to preserve the beauty that remains, or preserve the sturdiness of the dwelling against the threats of the stubbornly careless, or race to repair the endless round of damages committed by our drunken roommates. Then there are those who try to get past the symptoms and go to the root of the problem by fostering respect and good feeling between the various tenants to cure people of mindless misuse of the structure. Yet there are constantly insane rages from those whose selfish and intrusive addictions for wealth and power cause them to lapse in their consideration for this house we must share, thus often undoing the good work done in far less time that it took to accomplish such good renovations. And now we've got many of the roomers who have just stopped thinking about the place they're standing in, choosing instead to wonder and worry in a state of mental paralysis as to when the absentee landlord is going to show up in person, instead of just collecting the rent by mail. Some ask, why this landlord built such a place for us that once was so beautiful when we first took up residence, but has shown itself to be so fragile at the hands of those without the capacity for lasting sentiment. Will these wreckers be punished, or were we all never meant to really care about this our temporary abode, but only that better abode promised to us after our tenancy has expired? I think that there is indeed a happier abode, but that the one we share right now holds some true reflection of it, however imperfect this immediate habitation may be. There is so much that is beautiful in this world, running in a continuum from the aesthetically sensuous to the aesthetically moral. That such nourishing qualities exist at all is indicative not only that there must be a place where these qualities better thrive, but also that there is real virtue in our planet itself that should not be discarded, despite the competing and disruptive forces of unraveling cruelty, moral ugliness and purposeful blighting of living environments. The cosmic connection in our present world to a more perfect future home for the soul (however tenuous) means that Mother Earth deserves our respect and love and protection. In so doing we may learn to better love and respect our fellow beings with whom we share this place, simultaneously teaching them to properly value this family dwelling we have all been given in this life. How might we ever be worthy of a heaven if we turn this once lush planet into a desert? If the cosmic landlord or landlady does come to inspect this place for a reassessment, could such an owner be at all pleased that we might have turned his or her property into an ash heap? For the record, I love this place we call Planet Earth in its natural state and in the healthy modifications we make of it when we follow our natural and sound predisposition of simian interdependence and fellowship. On the other hand, there are many who do not like this planet, nor the compassionate instincts that belong to our natural evolutionary heritage as a branch of the Family of Great Apes. Perhaps these others would prefer the sulfuric hells or blanched wastelands that are the only alternative types of real estate up for offer among the other planets in our Solar system? It must be so that their tastes run thus, for soon the Earth will be like one of those worlds, if we do not stop the hell-bent remodeling of our power-intoxicated roommates.