On the Edge
It's a rainy Sunday; the downpour so heavy, denizens of the deep could quite possibly be packing their scaly bags and considering moving to our 50 acres at the base of Green Mountain. Actually, since the Arctic ice is melting so rapidly, it wouldn't surprise me if sea life were to become a probability a lot further inland before too long; many small islands and atolls already having disappeared with the rising of the oceans. I quite often go visit my friends George and Margaret Probst on Sundays, but because of the pouring rain I decided against it. So, it was a nice surprise that George came here for a short visit; I really enjoy our conversations, even though I do most of the listening; even at this late age in life, I am still open to learning something new. We have like thoughts on many of the issues that are threatening the well-being of our planet and our lives; many of which we are labelled cynical and are considered negative thinking - I prefer to think of our views as realistic.
Many people think that Vincent Van Gough cut off his ear because he was jilted by a woman of the night, a red-light-siren or because he was angry with a fellow artist by the name of Paul Gauguin. In a fit of rage, unable to find his friend and perhaps stab him to death, he cut off his own ear instead; or so the story goes. I painted this self-portrait of old Vinny boy and since he had yet to cut off his ear; I cut it off for him; much less painful and no blood either; he must of bled like a stuck pig and most likely squealed like one as well. While looking at the painting hanging in my studio, George and I decided that he hadn't cut his ear off for either of those two reasons. No, like many of us, we have an ear for only listening to good things and an ear for listening to bad things, so Vincent, very troubled man in his own right, decided to sever the ear that could only hear bad things. Although most of the population have two good ears, both George and I firmly believe that the majority of us only listen to the good things and that the unholy mess, being created and which already been created, will be miraculously cleaned up and put into order by our brilliant scientists or some religious god - perhaps the god of garbage; he may have a brilliant recycling scheme for the good of mankind.
One of the most important resources, if not the most important resource the Earth has to offer is water and can you believe our illustrious leaders are happily and purposely creating gigantic pools of toxic water for the god of economy. It's not that long ago that water was considered very valuable and there was an unwritten law, that nobody messed around with it - anyone caught poisoning water was pretty much done away with; often times without even a trial - just hung the sons-bitches from the nearest tree. Why is it that our prime minister, like many other leaders, are allowed to get away with promoting the extraction of precious ores and fossil fuels with no regard for destroying valuable water resources? Is it we, the general populace that's incompetent or is it our leaders? Why are governments allowed to promote big business instead of doing what is morally right for our planet and its inhabitants? Unfortunately, I have a lot of questions but I don't have any answers. Perhaps one of the things we human beings is cursed with is knowing that we die, many of us actually believing that when it happens, we are privileged to go to some marvellous Eden in the sky; an eternal Shang-La. For those of you who believe this; ask yourself this question; why would any god in their right mind allow such self-indulging, self-righteous, self-destructing people to inhabit another kingdom, after they've destroyed the one in the whole frickin' Universe that appears to be habitable. To me, if such a place does actually exist; it's most likely very small and for those who have truly led an outstanding selfless life.
I admit I'm not a very smart man but even as dumb as I am, it's not difficult for me to see the signs that something is drastically and seriously wrong with our planet; our Earth; our home and that my life, my kid's lives, their children's lives are in dire straits; our very existence is jeopardized, threatened to the point where we might all die together even though none of us are residing in close proximity - now how sad is that? Studies have shown that the average Canadian and American are using up 6 times more of the resources that we need for our existence; we are consuming far too much; buying useless crap made from unsustainable resources. Even if we were to cut back to only 2 times the amount; it would not be enough. In simple terminology, if the inhabitants of the Earth want to survive, we have to cut back even less than the full 6 times.
Alas, I have no solutions; only gripes and no idea what I would do to alleviate the problems if I were one of the world's leaders; except perhaps, to make certain that my actions were for the good of all living creatures and not for powerful business ventures - what good are jobs if they are destructive to the planet and kill its creatures; not just humans but everything that has a right to live here. And then again, like Van Gough, I could cut off the ear that only hears good things or failing that, I suppose I could don a pair or rose-coloured glasses - cheers, eh!
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