...if, over the past decade and a half, you have closely observed what is happening to the Earth, week in, week out, you may take a dark view of the future; and I do. The reason is that the Earth is under threat, as it has never been before, from the ever more oppressive scale of the human enterprise: from the activities of a world population which doubled from three to six billion in four short decades, between 1960 and 2000, and which, in the four decades to come, will probably increase by three billion more.

These activities are now wiping out ecosystems and species, across the world, at an ever increasing rate: the forests are chainsawed; the oceans are stripmined of their fish; the rivers, especially in the developing world, are ever more polluted; the farmland is rendered sterile of all but the monoculture crop by demented dosing with pesticides; the farmland insects and wild flowers and many of the birds have gone.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/man-is-fallen-and-will-destroy-the-earth--but-at-least-we-greens-made-him-wait-8554548.html

There is much suffering in this world. Buddha had some useful things to say about suffering. Here is the key: you must have both compassion and dispassion. Compassionately see the suffering, do what you can, then dispassionately accept that there is suffering that cannot be ended. Almost 65 years in this life has demonstrated that people will get their suffering needs met, no matter what you do. Respect their need to suffer, and let them. The current situation is unsustainable. If our species survives, most of us will not make it through the turmoil which will cull the population to a sustainable level. The half a billion or less who do will develop a sustainable ethic and live more in balance with a finite planet with finite resources. I intend to continue to be a positive, hopeful, attentive, sentient, and high functional human being. If that increases my chances of surviving, then my outlook will have had survival value.

I did not create the Cosmos or set up its rules. But I can see the beauty and efficacy of it. Cosmic evolution does not tolerate dysfunction. Our home world will survive, with or without Homo sapiens.

The saving grace of all this snow is a good hot sauna followed by a roll in the snow...followed by a cup of hot cocoa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makin' Bacon/Just before Christmas...a little late in posting

Snow Daze...making the 'nest' storage building into the new studio...getting a load of ash slab wood from the local mill...cut to 16" lengths