A Personal View

by djl

What Are We Doing?  Where Are We Going?  What Will Be the Big Surprise?

These are my thoughts this relaxed Sunday morning of peace and quiet.  A time and condition conducive to a more depthful perspective.  So I lift my eyes to survey a more extensive view of the world around me as it appears from the tiny pinpoint in space that I occupy.

As I allow my sensors to extend outward across the U.S. I am reminded of the Beattles' hit song "We All Live On A Yellow Submarine".  It seems that an awful lot of people are staying submerged within the boundaries of their immediate field of action and are fearful of extending their awareness any further.  In this way many are remaining disconnected from what is going on in the bigger picture.  Smart kids those Beattles!!

A shot across the bow of my personal "yellow submarine" came in the form of the 1999 Y2K scare.  I deemed this worthy of a ream of research that served to open my eyes to the extent my life was dependent on electricity--from electricity's part in flushing of the john to world banking via the internet.  It became apparent to me that every aspect of my physical life from the most pragmatic to the more esoteric was in possible jeopardy of contenuation in current form.

No matter that Y2K didn't come down as feared, it served as a wonderful "heads-up" alert as to the continuation of life as we know it.  It served its purpose in revealing the dependent state in which we were all participating.  At least now I had my periscope up and was looking intently in a 360o sweep of the world around me.  Thank Y2K!!

So it came to pass that I saw what I was doing, and I saw where it was going, and I didn't care for the possibilities of a "Big Surprise".  Indeed, the possibility of numerous surprises became more and more apparent as I scanned the world terrain more intently.  Not only was there potential of part of whole collapse of our societal system, but he Earth herself was in jeopardy of continuation as we know it.  for now my awareness extended into the anomalies of climate that were showing up worldwide.

A recent article in the newsletter put out by ArizonaEnergy.org gave a mind-wrenching overview of climate anomalies around the world.  It's entitled "From Alaska to Australia, The World is Changing in Front of Us", published September 15, 2006.  In this article we are treated to an overview of what has already come to pass due to climatic influences; e.g., 1000 hectares (about 2,500 acres) of Holland is being returned to the sea and houses are now going to be floating.  This reminds of California Governor Schwartzeneger's attempt to get funds for work on the levies of the Sacramento Delta.  Pacific Ocean waters have risen to cover small islands and the coat line where beach homes and resorts reside are succombinb to the rising ocean-level.  It makes one consider the Atlantic Ocean rise that could cover the Florida Keys and Main.  The Gulf States are already suffering considerable land loss due to the ravages of Katrina.

And what of the damage in Alaska to melting permafrost?  Houses and roads are being damaged not to forget the quantities of methane being released into the atmosphere due to this permafrost meltdown and the equally disturbing melt down of the Siberian tundra.

The mighty Amazon Jungle, the world's largest digester of carbon dioxide is now reduced to a scant piece of its former self due to the draught and man's incursions in South America.

The article goes on around the world recording the facts as they stand now.  What more is coming we might ask!  The changes of record in aggregate form, a looming picture of the near future.  Could this all be leading to a climatic event where the earth reclaims her balance, suddenly and violently?  Such an event would be greater than any Y2K disaster and could well be the "Big Surprise" waiting just ahead.

So we can do what we can individually and hope that collectively these individual efforts amount to something good.  I, for one, intend to keep on "keepin' on" building a structure of self-reliance that has only health and well-being as its main by-product to the whole.  In this way I will be doing the best I can for the greater good by starting with myself--which is really the only thing I have direct control over.

If others are doing the same, who knows what beneficial influence we might collectively have!!