The Environment as Unrehearsed Comedy

"Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make."

One of things I enjoy about family reunions is that it gets me out of my bubble and I am forced to interact with people I don't agree with.

One of my cousins was expounding on the necessity of switching from carbon-based fuels to anything else. With the wave of a hand he said "It just has to be done."

He made it sound as if it were an exercise that was no more bothersome than switching from a credit card at one bank to another; an analogy that may be more apt than it first appears.

Adult kids
Have any of you had the experience where an adult child came home and they were disappointed that you have gotten older and the house is not exactly like it was when they left four years ago? We joke about kids wanting parents to keep the house as a static museum. Perhaps they think they will be famous and history will want to know.

"This is Abraham Lincoln's bedroom and those are the Justin Bieber posters he taped to the wall with his very own hands."

The yard
My oldest daughter was unhappy when I planted a tree in the middle of where she used to practice kicking a soccer ball. Perhaps she pictured her child kicking a soccer ball in exactly the same place and exactly the same way.

Trees grow. They get old. They need to be cut down. All these things happened while they were here but they did not see it. A tree does not change much from one day to the next.

Back to the environment
So it is with the environment and ecosystems.

The environment and ecosystems are slow-moving, unrehearsed comedies with many actors moving about the stage. In our ADHD human way, we come to believe that the actors are statues and we are offended when we notice they moved.

The best improv is when the audience becomes engaged and goes with the flow.