Must not hate humans

I often have distaste for our species. It is a struggle between creating something beautiful that either can be shared among all species, or that can be shared among humans, alone.

And “save the planet” is just pretentious. If the entire existence of earth is condensed into one year, then humans have lived for only one hour of a total of 8,760 hours. We might appear insignificant in this case, although we are making every attempt to throw away all that earth has provided in just one hour. On the contrary, humans could vanish tomorrow, but the planet will thrive on its own, new species will emerge, and biodiversity will flourish.

At a local level, I’ve stopped going to a park nearby my house as the animal cruelty just consumes me, and a walk with my dog (that is supposed to be relaxing) has become anxiety ridden. We recently found a red-eared slider turtle with a fishhook in its mouth that appeared quite rusted, so who knows how long it had been in there. There is another duck that has lost a leg due to fishing line cutting off its circulation. I could try to “save” an animal everyday here, if that was my life goal, so I need to reassess why it is I come here &/or what it is that I can give back to.

It is a matter of “What are you going to do?” Are you going to start a crusade to save every animal in the park? Are you going to help one or two animals out of thousands, and stress yourself out so much that you do not sleep, & alienate your loved ones. There is no right or wrong answer; although, it seems some of us (as we get older) go down the road of becoming bitter toward the world, so if anything, I’m being cognizant that we can all place efforts elsewhere & not become this person.

I bring up the park example because there is a higher leverage point in creating change then simply helping an animal as you find it. I believe that no one should leave an animal that needs help alone to die (especially when the damage was done by a human), in the same way humans, as a species, are obligated to help anyone that is lying, suffering in the middle of the street.

I believe environmental laws can be established at a larger ecosystem level, perhaps according to a mountain range or watershed. And then all the social stuff can be addressed purely at the community level, and the city hall (beyond a certain capacity) could be eliminated. A “Friends of the Park” could reinforce a park culture that requires better habits from its users. All of this being said, there are strong mindsets that may proove to be potential hurdles in moving forward for all species that include:

1.     human domination over nature is our right

2.     those with the most toys wins

3.     And there is simply nothing that you can do to make a difference.

I imagine people can go a life time searching for their fit into society, while others might not even consider what their individual legacy (as a person & as a species) might be once they are gone. Again, it all comes down to, "What are you going to do?" By the way, we found a reptile veterinarian that offered to perform the surgery on the turtle & release him back to his pond “pro-bono."