A Sense of the Important

Blog, Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community | December 17, 2009

Arianna Huffington says she started because the mainstream media wasn’t picking up on the really important stories — they didn’t seem to have a sense of the important. Often overlooked are the less flashy, less immediate, but critical underpinnings of all we do, such as values and world view. These drive all our actions.  Not very sexy or fundable but it is absolutely vital that those things be examined and taught consciously in our society.  Our often unexamined, fundamental beliefs lead to many of the very specific problems we deal with such a deforestation, pollution, desertification, etc. One of these fundamentals is how we look at ourselves in relation to other living beings — if animals  were considered as living beings in their own right, part of the fabric of life, sentient  beings; we would not have factory farms unhealthy for us as well as cruel to the animals; we would not grab habitat for huge second homes and developments wasteful of the land;  we would think twice before building yet another road in the forest or blacktop more living land for malls and parking lots – we would stop the mindless drive for expansion. Our entire societal structure would be different. We are starting to realize the necessity of this as the current administration tries to move to a green economy for practical reasons – very worthwhile. But it would be more sustainable, would happen sooner, and be easier and more pleasurable if we did it from a sense of our job as stewards of the earth and from a sense of the sacred. Earthfire works to contribute to the sense of the sacredness of all life and the sense that we are truly one community. What we do to any living being, either good or bad, in some way affects us all.

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