Mother and child

A common theme for the modern world is about our relationship with the Nature. This relationship is usually expressed ruefully using many statements. “We have come very far from Nature”. “The modern man has lost the connection to the mother earth that the caveman had”. “We no longer have reverence for the Nature.”

The statements like this are not completely false. But how true are they? Rather more importantly, how useful are they? Mind you, they are not meant to be simple statements of fact. They certainly carry heavy moral judgment. We humans have been bad boys (girls are supposedly nicer in this respect). We have sinned, neglected our mother for our selfish interests. We have depleted her resources, cut down the beautiful trees, stopped worshipping the elements as we once did, we have become slaves of Satan.

The moral implecations are supposed to follow if the statements are true. But are they? Well, my feeling they seem like they have graduated from cliché-hood to truth, sometimes without passing the examination. Some are partially true, and some are absolutely false and even those that are true, do not lead to the serious moral implications. The picture is less of a flagrant sinner who raped mother earth, and more of a poor starved society that did not know better and was forced into using whatever they could to defend their existence. As humanity becomes more stable and powerful, it is undoing some of the harms, and ultimately will become as little intrusive as possible.

The trick is to remove the statements from emotionally and politically charged environment to dissecting table of sensibility and put them under the microscope of objective thinking. Make it less of a moral issue and take it to the realm of a problem that humanity needs to solve.

Are we going away from the Nature? Of course we are. Nature can be a very dangerous place. There are predators everywhere. Wild animals, snakes, various pests, harmful bacteria, viruses. These all take toll on human life - even the caveman tried to avoid them. Modern nature conservationists are not much different – they try to live in homes that are free of all the above. That's why you have never heard of "save cockroaches campaign" or "E-coli preservation act". The elements are not too nice either. It rains, snows, there are tornadoes. So we wear clothes, and make ourselves comfortable inside walls built of wood, stone, bricks and cement. To fit more people we build skyscrapers made with steel.

This much distance is good, I hope everyone will agree. So what other distance are we talking about? It is more of emotional distance that everyone worries about. We no longer revere nature as we used too. There were people who worshipped various natural deities, the Sun, the wind, the Rain. Sometimes they went a bit too far by sacrificing humans to these gods, but mostly they revered the nature. Or so the theory goes. It is this sense of reverence that is lacking in the modern humans, and who knows where it will lead to...

The question to ask is where did the reverence come from? And why don't we have it anymore? Maybe it was the fear that forced humans to make deities out of natural forces. They had no knowledge, no control, and were helpless against the forces that hurt them severely. If you are in this position, you to would try, as a last resort to placate the elements through rituals. It is really interesting to see that it is exactly like a relationship of a baby with his parents. No wonder we call it Mother Nature. Now we know better, and have a lot more power in terms of prediction and protection. We are no longer afraid, just prepared. It is a relationship of an adult with his parents. However, the childhood memories still linger on through years gone by. But like any grown adult, humanity has feeling of guilt about living away from the mother. What we don't realize is that Nature can be a very harsh and abusive mother. We stay away to protect ourselves, yet get together when we can, and pay our tribute. That's not a relationship to be ashamed of.

Yet we are learning to take good care of mother nature. We are cutting down on polution wherever we can, designing more eco-friendly cars, finding more and more energy from wind, sun and nuclear sources. We are potecting at least the cute creatures. But if you are sick and starving, and worried about your next meal, you can't be expected to give your mother the highest priority. You do what you can, and hope for a better future. One day we will find the best balance. Right now the problem of finding balance is not high priority for us. There are still millions of children dying, and billions living in desparate conditions. To improve their lives, we must keep the pace of progress up, so that they can grow strong enough, and their mind free enough to give mum a call once in a while.