Amerika

The Source: That place, that thing, that environment, that Deity, from which things come. All things flow from their source. Whatever that source may be.

Humans have developed a fatal flaw: they have removed themselves from their source. There are many ways of doing this, and for as many ways as there are, humans have succeeded in doing them all. Humans are clever, see?

They don’t need to heed anything greater than themselves, especially not anything that might have given rise to them, in the first place. Not heed it, and certainly not respect or revere it…

People talk of the environment. We must preserve it! Save it! Set it aside!
Thereby missing the whole concept of an environment.
This environment, you see, is something quaint and delicate that exists outside, somewhere. It contains cute furry or feathered things. It is pretty, and can be visited and enjoyed, before going home for tea. Trees are nice. Birds are pleasant. Animals not large enough to eat you are fine. Those that are big enough to eat you appeal to the macho types. But all of it is worthwhile. Worth preserving. Worth a visit…

Well. That is one way of looking at it. But there are many ways of looking at things. Here is another way:
The natural environment is where we came from. It gave and gives us all we have. Our very lives. But most of all: our very sanity!
City dwellers have one thing in common. They are all, in varying degrees, crazy. They didn’t start out that way, but city dwelling inevitably makes them that way.
You may be a city dweller, and you may take umbrage at this. But can you honestly claim it is not true?
Your connection with the natural way of things has been severed. The results are predictable.

We wonder why all our politicians are – ah – the way they are. They are, almost to a person, city dwellers. They do their best, I suppose, with what they’ve got: an urban outlook. Almost totally removed from real life; life as life was intended to be.
Not to say that city dwellers are “bad”, but certainly they are, by the environment they inhabit, less human than they might be, and more removed from what makes a human human.

Sure: we need to respect, set aside, protect and revere the environment. But not for the reasons you might at first think.
The real, and most compelling reason of all, is that the natural world is the very thing that makes a human a human, and not merely a toaster, unplugged from the wall socket.

I could take this topic and run with it. The scope is endless. But for now, suffice it to say: People must be a part of their environment, not apart from it. It is their life-blood, their inspiration, their peace and their sustenance.
We can’t “save the world”, so how about saving ourselves?

By understanding that nature is our Source, and not merely a resource.