House on Fire

“Look out where we're headed

Or we may not survive!

Gotta stop the way we're going

Or we just might arrive! 

We better be wisin', wisin', wisin', wisin' up!”

- River Rising, by Sunheart 

Returning home from a walk today I find the house filled with smoke. A burner on the stove is on and the hot empty pan is pouring forth with smoke, while a few feet away, my oblivious housemate sits staring at their phone screen. They have lost their sense of smell. 

The frogs are boiling. We are doing this to ourselves. We are filling our house with smoke. The fire seasons around here on the left coast are doing things none of the firefighters have ever seen, “firenadoes” and storms of fire that create their own weather. 

We are in the midst of an unprecedented planetary crisis and I do not mean the current viral epidemic which has momentarily brought much of the world’s commerce to a pause. In the space of one human lifetime, we have unraveled much of the web of life on Earth. In this eyeblink of time, eighty percent of the worlds’ bugs, birds, and animals have been trampled to death by our heavy footsteps of industrialization. The planet is on fire.

Staring glumly at this situation three months ago, in early January, I ponder the legal case for an intervention by higher forms of life who may be available to call upon, much like the galactic cops. Aliens, ancient ancestors who may be about and watching from afar, angels, what not. I looked up the particulars for the Prime Directive in the legal annals of the Star Trek literature:

“The Prime Directive:

“It is known throughout the Universe that ET civilizations cannot involve themselves in the affairs of planets unless invited in unity by all the leaders of a planet. 


“The only exception to the 'Prime Directive' is if a civilization is on a collision course to harm or destroy other planets or their own home planet. Then, corrections to prevent this can be made, because the inhabitants might harm or destroy beings on co-existing dimensions of their own planet or perhaps even throw their planet out of orbit and harm other planets in their own solar system. But there would still NOT be an alien invasion, there would just be intervention to prevent global disaster.


“As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Starfleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely.”


So let us examine several points:

1.“..unless invited in unity by all the leaders of a planet. “

So, who are our leaders? Do we mean kings, despots, tyrants and strong men and their descendants who have seized power by force and rule without consent of the other people? If you believe in equality, are we not all leaders, at least when we are leading by pointing out the truth? 


What about the situation that billions of people are in today, who would like to stop wrecking the planet, but wonder how because they do not have freedom of speech or power to make policy, or in many cases, even the knowledge of what is being done and its consequences. Aren’t they effectively without legitimate leaders, but are instead hostages and victims themselves? 


Do more evolved beings really think that the billions of Earthlings will ever all agree on anything, or that the ones in power are any more than bullies and usurpers of power, power that justly belongs to the sovereign souls of individuals? What about the case of democracies where the vote was stolen by trickery and the corporate thieves who are destroying the planet? As the saying goes, does not your right to swing your fist end before it reaches my face?


2.“the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred”

(sen·tient ;/ˈsen(t)SH(ē)ənt/; adjective; able to perceive or feel things.)   Many animals are sentient by this definition and many of them do have cultures of their own, almost all of which we humans have destroyed or are destroying.


3.“to harm or destroy other planets or their own home planet.”

We are systematically wiping out the natural habitat of most of the other species of critters and plants on Earth, and more entire species are going extinct every day. We are poisoning and degrading water, air, and earth for short term gain of imaginary wealth in the form of money. Our actions have reached the level of threatening most life on the planet. Our so called leaders have not managed to slow or stop, much less reverse, this process. (Until the last few weeks.)


4. As to the “right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution” and “the normal and healthy development” of our species and the other ones on the planet, there is nothing “normal” or “healthy” about current developments. Therefore, the prohibition against intervention does not apply.


We would not be asking for interference or invasion, merely  “corrections” and “intervention to prevent global disaster.”


I conclude we have a good case to ask for this kind of help from our heavenly friends.

So, three months ago, I put in such a request for intervention:

“As a free being, sovereign soul and beloved child of Creator, as a leader of the planet by virtue of being a coequal member of a democracy, and by the right of being an embodied citizen of Earth, I am calling for assistance from all benevolent beings on and around the planet, in intervening to correct the current course toward planetary catastrophe.”

Suddenly, there was this pandemic! Now we stand in the quiet center of this hurricane of global disaster, in a tiny little moment of a minuscule but palpable time out. Could this be the intervention I was asking for?

This crop circle appeared in Wiltshire, UK, on May 31st, 2020. It is really a very elegant intervention. As the humans hunker down all over the world at this moment, the creatures are rebounding. The air is cleaner in many places than it has been in decades. Seismologists are noticing that the planet is literally vibrating less, due to the quieting down of human activities. Bird songs are heard in some cities for the first time in anyone’s memory. Wildflowers are coming up in unmowed parks and fields. Large animals are venturing out and roaming through empty city streets. It is not unlike the cases of Chernobyl and Fukushima, where the humans have abandoned the scene of radioactive accidents and nature has moved in, creating zones where wildlife is once again massively flourishing.

“Who’s your agent, kid?” inquires the big grim reaper called Climate Catastrophe, to the little baby grim reaper called Covid 19, in one cartoon I saw. The hurricane is not over, this is a quiet eye moment in the huge climate catastrophe storm. But it is like an intervention. Come out and feel the peace now, listen to the birds, smell the clean air. And let us quickly absorb the lesson being offered by this mega disrupter.

Who knew that the whole world could act in unison this way? Who knew that when faced with the fear of imminent personal bodily harm, the leaders of the world and corporate titans could stop, and turn on a dime? (Why, world peace is practically breaking out; because it’s um, dangerous to wage war right now!)

Maybe we did not need an intervention by outside forces. Maybe this one is simply a gift from our own karma. 

Most of the great plagues of history have started just like this one, by infectious agents jumping species due to humans exploiting animals by murdering and consuming them, enslaving and abusing them, or simply by destroying or disrupting their habitat.

Change is demonstrably possible, clearly we can fix our big problems if we simply want to.

“A season has changed, the dawn has come, and then you realize

You look around and notice there’s a new light in peoples’ eyes

An ya know what to do, the birds are singing it; you can feel it in the air

All the animals know, trees are rustling, the murmuring sound is everywhere

It’s time to wake up, link up, speak up, and thrive”-from Thrive, by Sunheart

“Humanity’s lungs are under attack, but the world is breathing. The Earth is restoring its balance and with it we are. We have heard stories of blue skies in China and dolphins returning to the canals of Venice. Our “sacrifice” in economic and leisurely activity is granting the Earth a much-needed rest. Stanford University researchers estimate that about 77,000 lives are saved by emission reduction in China alone, even daring to ask if the “lives saved from this reduction in pollution caused by economic disruption from COVID-19 exceeds the death toll from the virus itself.” Marian Brehmer

Smiling from Behind my Mask

Confessions of an Introvert Smiling from Behind my Mask

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." -Rahm Emanuel

Of course I fear and feel for the vulnerable ones, and appreciate the heroes fighting the the virus on the front lines to protect us all. And while my communal household is isolating and hunkering down, I too look forward to the reopening of the outside world.

Still, I have to admit, this is an introvert’s dream. And other than the above mentioned stipulations, I’m lovin’ it.

When I was a child, the grown ups bought me a huge sweatshirt emblazoned with a quote from the comic strip Peanuts, “ I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand!” I can relate to that. Those guys really got me. I loved to pull my arms and legs into the giant sweatshirt and have my own little tent space.

Fortunately I can still do my daily roam on the hiking trails all around where I live in the rainforest. But it has always bothered me to walk through people’s toxic body products cloud when I passed them on the trail. My delicate veganish sense of smell gives me nasal superpowers. I smell every cologne, antiperspirant chemical, hairspray and whatnot that goes by me. I often even know what people have eaten as well! But the new trail etiquette is to actually leave the trail, and let the person pass. Hey, works for me.

I love the quiet now. Fewer cars going by, fewer airplanes roaring overhead. Just birds! All over the world, during this incredible global timeout, city people are hearing the birds, and pollution levels are plummeting! I hope everyone is using their time out to reconsider how we do business as usual. How many car trips are really justifiable? How many jobs really require the burning of fossil fuels to get into the office, and how much of this can be done from home? 

And we have become way too casual about flying. I get that it is a blessing to be able to hop on a plane and quickly get to the bedside of that dying relative, or for the wildfire crew that needs to quickly assemble in another state. But the word blessing also means to pierce, or tear open. The fact is, the technology of flying on the planet at this time is shredding the environment. It is crude, primitive, dangerous, dirty, wasteful of natural resources, toxic to all concerned in every way, and at least ninety percent unnecessary. It is rude to all of us who have to put up with the roar above us, it contributes in a substantial way to the current extinction crisis on Earth, and it encourages our most selfish and impatient impulses. I hope the airline industry crashes. And may we all rest in peace!

And we certainly do not need swarms of drones, droning out the birds and invading our privacy from above, to deliver pizza.

There are those, (not us introverts,) who will of course say that we need to physically go into the workplace or school in order to socialize. But we can do this at the time and place of our own individual choosing! Must we sit in rows, military style, as our lessons are administered to us? Let’s throw out the factory model of education. It is quite obsolete.

I note that despite this moment of unprecedented heavy use, the internet is still functional. We do not need to add more electromagnetic pollution to our atmosphere with five G. Underground fiber is way quieter and cleaner.

I also note the abundance that allows us all to still eat and heat in a time when the economy is in a so called sudden depression. Where do you think all of the gains of civilization have been going all these years? I mean by that our wealth of shared information, our infrastructure, our myriad ways of doing more with less, our wealth inherited from the work of those who came before us. We have a whole lot of slack and abundance, and we work too many hours, but why?! 

Our money system, which lets the rich roll all the planets’ labor and natural resources into tiny paper or electronic balls for their own super powers, is the way it is, only because we allow it. We allow it only because we have bought into the propaganda that tells us that there is not enough for everyone so we must fight each other. It is a toxic and misguided meme of infinite economic growth, the philosophy of a cancer cell.

We have way too many people working at jobs that are unneeded, unhealthy, unhelpful, or just plain toxic and dangerous for all life on the planet. Let’s get serious about the universal basic income, so people can get creative, or think deeply about solving the real problems of the world instead of just scraping by, or just take a healthy and much needed rest!

I hope we learn from this crisis. I hope we learn ways to keep calm, because muddled thinking results from stress and fear. 

One thing is for sure, this is a turning point, a crisis offering opportunity, and the world will never be the same again.

“Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think." -Jawaharlal Nehru