That is what Mother Earth asked me, in the form of an old woman, in a vision quest I did on Meares Island 30 years ago. I was out in the wilderness for two weeks on my own in a remote area beside a creek flowing into the ocean in Clayoquot Sound. Fall Equinox, full moon. I had built a sweat lodge out of found materials. She came to me then. It was a powerful vision....she was hunched over sitting on the ground, wearing a cloak that was faded and worn but was originally made of so many beautiful colors. She was sobbing and I asked her.."Grandmother, why are you crying?" Out from under her cloak she brought a spherical loaf of bread that resembled the shape of a space station. It was covered in the many seeds of the Earth and holding it up to me, she asked me that question...."do you know how long it took to create the seeds?..."
I sit here contemplating human beings and the genetic manipulation and alterations taking place with our RNA and DNA after so much has been experimented on and altered in plants and animals. It is horrifying to think what is happening to the beautiful world we were placed into. Mutations and splicing of genetic material in an insane game of control and manipulation to what end? I cringe and cannot dwell on the trauma, death and cruelty some humans do to other species but now it seems that it is OK on humans as well. Acceptable death or alteration...collateral damage rationalized by the mind. Gain of function?
The ninth wonder of the world is the human brain...a tool that is capable of anything except heart. Without heart, it is lost. Ethics, empathy, love, compassion, joy, beauty and so much more come from our heart and soul. A species with no heart is lost, its moral compass broken.
And so I wonder, thinking of the seeds and all creation...how long did it take for humans to become the incredible beings that each of us is? What an amazing miracle we are but now what? Are we worthy of inheriting this blue and green gem or are we to annihilate life and ourselves in rationalized scientific experiments going horribly wrong?
We are not in control, there are unimaginable powers far greater than us. If we cannot pull ourselves out of this destruction with heart and love, caring and compassion for all life in its myriad marvelous forms and stop treating everything as objects subject to whatever, there will not be a future for us in this great cosmos. There is natural law that applies to all things. We are at a precipice of being human (humane?)...what goes around comes around.