Have we ruined our world?

Manufactured Landscapes by Edward Burtynsky
I wanted to add this you tube link to a river in Kathmandu.

This morning my 10 year old accused me and the last few generations before me of ruining our world.

"Have we?" I asked.

"Mom, you and your generation and the generations before you are responsible for all of the garbage and global warming... "  He had more to say, but this was the essence.

What have we done?

I asked him to look around him and said, "If I have contributed to the decay of the world then so have you. Look around you.  Everything that you have is made by machines with plastic parts and consumes fossil fuels."  We went hunting around our home for an object completely untouched by modern technology.  I found pottery made by my friend, but the wheel it was turned on was electric and the clay arrived boxed in plastic.  There are few places in the world where everything is entirely industry free.  Perhaps somewhere in the Amazon or high in the mountains of Nepal.  Even though the jewelry we buy is entirely hand built, torches are used to solder the pieces together.

He is right, we are no longer able to live in this modern world without touching objects made by machines and it is ruining the air we breath and the environment that we live in.

Please rent Manufactured Landscapes on Netflix, photo above, It is an astounding film!  It shows the monumental physical damage we have done to our landscape.

Right now in Nepal, Global Warming is causing the glaciers to recede leaving longer dry seasons.  A friend in Nepal just wrote me that they have had no rain for 3 months.  People will die of starvation this year because their crops will not have enough water.  How unfair that people who have barely had access to modern technology will suffer so much for the excesses of the rest of us.

We can not turn back the clock but we can make an effort to change our future.  Technology may have gotten us into this mess, but I think that responsible technology is also our only way out.  Reduce, reuse, recycle, buy natural handmade products, and advocate for the development of clean energy alternatives.  It's not easy in our modern society and it will take a daily commitment make a change.

The Inevitability of Change

We are unhappy because we seek happiness!

One who encounters all situations with equanimity,

shall find happiness inevitably. - Param Pujya Ma

This has been a fast paced summer of great changes.  My apologies for abandoning my blog for several months.  

My summer went like this:

May 19, 20  - Atlanta, GA
May 26, 27- Brookline, MA

June 9,10 - Nashville, TN
June 16,17 - Cleveland, OH
July 2,3 - Takoma Park, MD

July 7,8 - Cincinnati, OH

July 13,14,15  - Virginia Beach, VA
July 28,29 - York, PA
August 4,5 - Hyannis, MA
August 18,19 - Atlanta, GA

  

(My car has achieved 200,000 miles in 7 years and I am travel weary.)

Change is the very nature of existence.  Fear of change is our obstacle rather than the change itself.  We can be slow to accept changes but they will come even to the unwilling and we will learn to walk a new path.  I am currently making transitions from the stone age to the information age and I am finding the transition more painful than I would like to admit.  It is true that I need to let technology do my driving for me, but I will miss the long visits to artsy gift stores around the country.  Many of the places that I used to visit have not weathered the economic storm.  What remains are shops with a strong presence online who access customers around the globe.  The transition to globalization is very old news but for those of us who relish trips to places where there is rarely electricity and entertainment is a front porch chat, there has been a very deliberate foot dragging.

Here's what is happening.  My postcard show announcements will completely disappear by the end of this year.  They will be replaced by an email list serve.  If you want to know when I am coming to a show near you you will have to subscribe.  I will still be traveling for the near future.
Sign up here, http://eepurl.com/oWRpL.

As a bonus, you will be notified when we receive new shipments or if we are having a spectacular sale.  That's it!  I won't send you junk mail every day or even every week, I promise.

Unsubscribing is also easy if you would prefer not to receive more email.  A simple click on "opt out" in any mailing will opt you out.

The big changes to the web site will take several weeks but soon anyone who wants to make a purchase, either wholesale or retail, should be able to click on the item and get it in about 4 business days.  I will certainly make a big announcement when the changes are complete.

Learning can only happen in concert with change.  May you experience peaceful transitions as you encounter the flowering of enlightenment!