“Tell Us How You Really Feel” …An Earth Day Rant

The Rant, a fine human tradition. And one I occasionally trade on shamelessly. Humans have odd social rules, especially those of us humans descended from the Puritan/Protestant tradition of hiding our emotions. But it seems to be somewhat socially/politically acceptable to, every once in a while, but not too often, let our emotions out in one big burst. Our fellow humans seem to, for the most part, understand that this is a necessary, or at least inevitable, part of living in an emotionally repressed society.

Iow, we are ‘allowed’ to let our true feelings, such as frustration and anger out once in a while, as long as we ‘act normal’ the rest of the time. And I agree. And so I do my best, lol, to act normal. Ranting makes people uncomfortable, rants are usually mostly raw emotion. Raw emotion is in itself uncomfortable, because it triggers an emotional response in us, and we don’t like to be emotional. We are not good at it, we haven’t been trained to deal with it, we don’t know how to respond to it. It makes us uncomfortable, in a society built around the idea that comfort is the highest goal.



Abandon Comfort, All Ye Who Enter Here

And as with most raw emotion that has been repressed and then suddenly bursts out, they have some element of truth, at the very least a emotional truth. The truth of the true feelings of the ranter, but often as well, a real truth about whatever situation spurred the repression, and thus the need to rant about as opposed to discuss, the situation. Very often, that truth has been repressed because there is simply nothing constructive to do about that particular situation no matter how frustrating it is, so discussing it isn’t productive. And bringig it up again and again is actually counterproductive, as their is no perceived solution. It then just annoys us to be reminded of …whatever it is. If there is no solution, no hope of resolution, bringing up a subject that rouses the emotions again and again…is indeed pointless…and annoying.

Impeachment is a great example, yes Bushco are War Criminals and Torturers and Congress is complicit and we are paying for it with our taxes and it is all being done in our name….but there is nothing I can do about it…so just Shut The Fuck Up. I don’t want to be reminded of a inconvenient truth that makes me uncomfortable as hell, but about which there is nothing I can comfortably do. So talking about it just makes me feel powerless. I don’t want to feel powerless. Hell, with all the shit going on in my daily life, with all the struggles I have to face just to survive and try to prosper…I can’t afford to feel powerless.

Thus the resonant saying; (for those with empathy) Be kind to everyone you meet, for we are all fighting a great battle. No one wants to hear that they have to add another element, another foe, to their daily battle, life is tough enough as it is. Especially on the grand scale, where we already feel powerless enough, thank you. Ranting about it doesn’t help, so be quiet and let me get on with my life, which, btw, sucks enough already. But, LOL, I suppose if you HAVE to rant occasionally, I am powerless to do anything about that too! After all, I myself need to rant sometimes, so I will grudgingly excuse you for reminding me of my powerlessness.

As I say above, in my writing I take advantage of this clause in the social contract to, hopefully not too often, ….Tell You How I Really Feel. And I shall do so again…right now

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WE ARE NOT POWERLESS

Even if you have no political clout. No worldly power. Even if you are broke. Even if you spend all of your time just working to make enough money to survive and the rest of your time recovering so you can get up and do it all again. Even if you feel powerless…..you are not powerless.

You have a brain, you have a voice, you have a will.

You can change things.

You can change things.

YOU have the power to change the world.

In fact it is your responsibility to do so.

(sorry if that makes you uncomfortable!)

In point of fact, you DO change the world everyday, just by the mere fact of your existence.

The power you have is in choosing how you change the world everyday.

Where you live, where you work, how you get to work, what you buy, what you eat, what you watch, what you read, how you think, even down to how you breathe…all of these things change the world…everyday.

And all of them are your choice, whether you like it or not. You are not powerless. You do have the power to change things.

(sorry again!)

Allow me to state at this time in a VERY clear and unequivocal way….I am NOT condemning you or your lifestyle or your choices. I am not judging you or your lifestyle or your choices.

I am, however, asking you to change. And I will not even ask you to change your lifestyle. I will only ask you, today on Earth Day, to change one thing…your thoughts.

Though I have no right to, no moral or worldly authority to do so, and you have absolutely no reason to listen to me or do what I ask…I will ask anyway.

Please, change the way you think about our world, our planet.

The earth does not belong to mankind, mankind belongs to the earth.

We do not own it and we have no right to destroy it.

That is where it starts. We are not separate. We and the planet are one. We, the planet and all life upon it are one thing, inseparable. We do not own it and we have no right to destroy it. In fact we have a responsibility to preserve it, to make it better, to pass it on unharmed, if not improved to the next Seven Generations of humans who will follow us. It gave birth to us, it keeps us alive, it feeds and nurtures us everyday. It is all that allows us to live.

It is all that allows every pleasure that we know. Every good thing we have ever experienced or ever will. Without it we are not even dust in the wind, we are nothing. We do not exist. And therefore there is nothing more important. (Not even YOUR candidate!) If we can not find it in ourselves to respect and be responsible to the very thing…the very entity, that gives us life…what can we, what do we truly, respect?  

Honor her, respect her, try to nurture and protect her as she protects you and has protected you every day of your life. Do whatever you can to help her….and all of us, even unto the very least of us, in the web of life…to be healthy and to thrive.

Realize, reflect upon, and hold in your thoughts everyday that we have only one planet, only one home in the cold vast expanse of space that surrounds us. That if not for her, we would not exist. YOU would not exist, none of the incredibly important things you have to do today would exist. That she is in fact, by the dint of giving us our very lives, our Mother. A living, breathing entity, to whom we all owe everything we have and value.

I ask for nothing else, for if you do this, all else will follow.

Thank you.

/rant