Hi K! ":O} First things first. I wrote that the future would not matter "IF" you did not love your children...The assumption being that you do. If birds rejoice when their chicks hatch how much more so when a woman brings forth a child? I don't know a single person who had kid because of a biological imperative. They wanted a child to love...Yes? Well it took us a while but we have finally arrived at a place that may allow us a better understanding of one another. Actually someone does know or claims to know....99% of all species that ever lived are gone.. That sounds about right to me but how would I know? You speak of the lack of human caring, it is apparent everywhere we look that we are completely indifferent to the harm we do. And I will even concede that this has been the case for most of our History. But were people always as uncivilized as we are now. When Europeans arrived there were estimated to be 20 million people already here. 20 million has been estimated to be the maximum human load Nurture could carry and still carry on. That load is thought to have been in place for thousands of years. They maintained there populations though a very simple mechanism. Constant limited warfare. and the lean years in nature took care of the rest, starvation and the other hazards of life in nature. If one does any reading at all into what their lives were like, one thing stands out profoundly. They really loved one another.And that makes sense when you think about it. Not only was their life together a 24/7 affair from birth to death, but those lives were constantly at risk! But they were of necessity brothers in arms. When people fight for resources they are to many. This was well understood by Native Americans. This will take a bit but I feel it worth the understanding we might gain. This account is from Hunta Yo and book written by one who lived it. A single story from that book.A true account of an event. Two tribes meet out on the prairie. one several times larger than the other. There have been several hard winters in a row and buffalo can't be found exception very small groups insufficient to their needs. There is hunger among both tribes. It is important to know that they are not necessarily enemies. They probably intermarried and traded together in the recent past. This is greatness so pay attention. This is how they maintained their populations. Two dozen warriors of the smaller tribe go fourth. They know the score. We are to many. The reach the middle ground. they pull out raw hide rope and a stake. They drive the stake deep into the ground and tie one leg to it. They cast aside their bows and stand with only a knife. There would be no retreat. They would stand and fight as many as came forth. They call out to the warriors of the other tribe "Hunto Yo!" (It is a good day to die!) Now the larger tribe is put to the test. They could send forth all their warriors and slaughter not only the combatants that came forth to meet them but those who remain behind at their mercy. Here's what they did. The sent forth an equal number of warriors and they met in individual combat. The weaker tribe had shown it's willingness to bear the overpopulation burden and the stronger tribe made room for those Who understood the needs of the larger tribe. They met like this as often as they needed to throughout the millenniums. They did not see themselves as a part from nature. They revered the Great Grizzly The talked to the prairie dogs, they called the Wolf brother. I tell this story to demonstrate how malleable humans are. When We arrived...a story to ugly to recount yet another time.We were as you say indifferent to the good. People living close to nature often turn upon her and destroy their own livelihoods. But people who live IN nature would never behave in this way. Any more than we would eat our own children. They do not mentally separate their own well being from the general well being. They do not limit their love to this one or that one. To live in nature one must be apart of nature or nature consumes all. We tend to forget that a small number of humanity still lives this way voiding us like the plague. I suppose we could call them innocents as they have yet to conceive of destroying what they need to live. My point is that all humans are not the same in their cultures. The Pygmies in the Congo. The Indians of south America, the Bushmen of The Kalahari desert. They still have connection and belong to one another and belong IN nature. When we first started to jailed American Indians they would often die within weeks. They did not believe that they could live in a square box while their soul was in nature. So when we speak of how humans behave we must make a distinction between how we behave and how our ancestors behaved before we wished to rise above nature. Now the example I provided us with (Hunto yo!) represents a very great refinement. Remember the American Indians "Buffalo" culture was vastly improved with the coming of the Spaniards horses. Their populations were coping with a new ability, many more infants were able to survive. They were coping with an abundance that was always in fluctuation. Their number would build beyond what nature could sustain. They were clear sighted. Some must die or all will starve. Hunta YO! What is I think very hard for us to see into or grasp is the profound love they had for nature. We were a horror story of indifference to them. We killed everything we saw and tried to replace the American Wilderness with Europe. We slaughtered roughly 20 million of them by every means imaginable. We were without any greatness of spirit. Our way of life is likely on the way out. Life will be harder in nature than it ever was before. Many among us sense what is coming, not the details but unwanted change. But the need to remain within the limits of nature's ability to provide has always been with us. But when we get to good at it we leave nature. And begin lives of accumulation. Now to you and your son. The human world is made of such as these. Father and sons Mothers and daughters. The foundation of all civilizations is the core family. Grown to the clan, grown to the tribe, grown to the nation. We first learn love within the family, everything depends upon this the family is the building block of the human future. If you treat your son (I know that you do not) as merely a response to your biological imperative how forlorn and coldly lonely he would be. He first call is upon your heart, it's nice if your smart or a great hunter, but it's ok If your not,His first call is to your heart. We may not think our way out of our predicament, but it possible we can feel our way to a better exceptence of what must be done. Hunto Yo! He is the treasure of your house ( are they both boys or did you get a dud?LOL Your very reason for living changed the day he/she was born if not sooner. We will not think our way out of our predicament. We are not really all that rational as a group. If we are to find our way past this impasse, we will have to recover from the past our ability to love without distinction, all that is. So we probably won't get there. But I have! And you can to! Give your heart to this world and your mind will follow, solutions will present themselves. Your mind is far from the only worthwhile thing about you.":O} Your heart just might save YOUR world if not mine. But your world and mine can only really meet though the discovery of one another hearts. There is little apparent material gain in meeting in this way. So not to many find they have an interest in doing so. But If I did not feel their hunger how could I claim to love them? We will lose much in the time that is coming. But if we lose or fail to regain our love for one another we will surly lose all. What we share with our children is a holy thing, a thing the transcends nature. Lives beyond biological imperatives. We will take the child of another even of an enemy and make that child our own. If we can preserve that much, we still have a chance to recover what we threw away when we first met bright and shiny. Sorry I rambled a bit, well a lot Just couldn't quite pull together all the threads today, but you got my best effort and my love.":O}
