The Moral of The Hunt
Wondering what is the meaning of life?
It is the legacy we are leaving behind. We are the planetary movers, legacy contractors; turn key! If any of the Holy Books would have been written today — the age when the lifetime of man-made objects greatly surpasses ours — the common message of all religions would have been to protect Earth, as Earth truly is the Garden of Eden.
Life is a live reality show that never ends due to children replacing their parents, generation after generation.
We understand that, but still, we’re neglecting the perpetual stage (planet Earth), while downplaying our individual relevance as The Ancestors.
Happy Birthday, Adam! Painting by Krasso Mihaylov, oil on canvas, 60 X 104 inches, Stone Sparrow Gallery NYC
Following is a brief excerpt from a book for quitting smoking & vaping; the poem was written in early 2020 when the lockdowns reduced the pollution rates for a short while, after the pandemic started (in medical field 20/20 means clear vision).
~ 20/20 Clear Vision ~
Our ancestors feared and respected
Nature.
They prayed to Gods.
The trees, the animals,
The Sun and the Moon —
Were sacred.
In one hundred years
Or in two generations
We changed the weather
We poisoned the soil
We tainted the air
We trashed the oceans
We cut the forests
We decimated the species
We even killed our own
for the right price.
And I will cite:
The chemicals in the food,
In alcohol,
The cigarettes,
Some medications —
as offenders.
We did not fear much anymore.
We only feared
a distant death,
to lose the phone,
our passwords,
to get the identity stolen.
We never blinked twice
while causing hurricanes
or having plastic show up
in the snow
at the North Pole.
We reinvented cancer.
Now, Nature took a time out.
The Pandemic put its foot down,
It’s on our neck,
Pressing hard.
The virus collects the toll —
We call it a disaster,
But Mother Earth —
she is on vacation,
While our race is facing
disease, pain, regrets
and death
by suffocation.
Meanwhile we keep talking about our roots. We take pride in them without realizing that we are in fact the ancestors of tomorrow, trashing the legacy we are supposed to pass on.
We are the inhabitants — not the owners of the world. Does the depth of the ocean belong to the fish, or the top of the mountain to a wild goat? You probably agree not. Just like them, we have a lifetime lease, but in as little as one century, we transitioned from respectful tenants to parasites.
We complain about mites, rats, ticks, fleas and termites, yet we are worse than them. As mentioned before, smoking is not just hurting our bodies, it also affects the environment. It pollutes, and the tobacco farms are destroying the land and the ecosystems; trees, plants, animals and insects — they’re dead just so we can buy ourselves those cigarettes.
The smartest race is poisoning all the species with their pesticides, including their own. Our tacky black magic didn’t only affect the soil — we also changed the weather! Instead of vitamin D from the sun and a tan, we’re getting skin cancer; wave the ozone layer goodbye, but make sure you’re in the shadow.
So when you’re about to throw your garbage on the curb[1], think twice and choose better. There’s really no break or time out, meaning that our responsibilities are overlapping. Just like me, you are the ancestor, but till you die (and once you’re born again) you are also the next generation.
Do you associate yourself with those two, or do you want to keep being part of ‘the infestation’?
(Excerpt of Smoking, Who? To Quit Smoking, Belittle Smoking)
[1] Please do look at cigarette butts as what they truly are. Not only that they are garbage, but also they are the most littered item on the entire planet!
***
What do you want to represent — the butterfly effect (1), or the lanternfly defect (2)? And remember, you do speak Mathematics from Heaven (3) (read about 1-2-3 in the scavenger hunt, if you haven’t); thus, you can transform — growth is your asset.
It doesn’t matter what you did before; it matters what you do from now on. Life is a sharpener and you are a pencil. “I wasn’t born like this; I woke up like this,” meaning that yesterday I learnt something new, so today I am better. No guilt, just action. Mathematics from Heaven doesn’t waste Energy or Time; it expects people to correct themselves, so their potential is not lost or kept negative.
~ A child’s anxiety ~
All kids have anxiety*,
one episode of scare,
remembered vividly
till old age
becomes lethal.
The little people
in my family fear:
heavy rain,
thick thunders in the air,
worms crawling on their skin,
darkness,
death of their loved ones
being near,
Old-Man-I-Don’t-Want-To
who comes out of a split wall
and takes you to Forever-Nowhere,
if you don’t do what you’re told to;
Not knowing how to read the time right
on the wall clock
hence missing preschool
(such a weird worry for a baby!)
But you know what?
My mom wanted to be
a baker in the woods,
way deep!
Now that’s cool! —
So she could eat all the cookies
alone —
she would rather
not
have
any customers.
And she was going to kinder garden
unattended*,
walking a butterfly with a string around its waist.
A butterfly, as a balloon!
When she was ten she looked in the mirror
at herself,
chunky,
always too fat for her years,
always too tall,
and she wondered
“Why was I born?”
I asked — “Did all the kids have a leashed butterfly
instead of a dog?”
I imagined it must have been a fashion in the 60’s;
wings over a wagging tail.
“No”
“How come your parents did that?”
My dad said:
“I think that was a memory her mother had
from growing up”
in yet another childhood home,
another fairy tale.
Despite not having children of my own,
I’ve got a theory for why we’re here:
To feel anxieties and fear,
then learn how to control them* —
Also,
to keep
the fire on,
Like the butterflies replacing a balloon do,
or like any other recollection
that’s winning over dread,
and gives us balance,
as well as nurture —
enriching our souls
long time after the ones who did it first
are dead.
Just like its other half
completes the moon
and makes it be a sphere opposed to just a circle,
our memories will fill in the blanks
from fetal to fatal,
overlapping
generations.
That’s why my mom was born.
Her family tree
is alive,
her ancestral fire is on.
Same goes for every single one of you.
The elders may have gone to rest,
But I believe they’re close,
and their echo
lies in us.
Can be a gesture,
The chin, maybe the nose,
The blood type —
Thus making out of us a leaf
in mankind’s forest;
Features we have never met
are part of us forever,
just like a dead’s bird feather
with mud and twigs from a different era
make up a nest.
There’s no future without past.
And we are the present;
so now, as legacy builders,
we should do our best
to make the life of all kids better…
(The new ‘child’s anxiety’ is climate anxiety. Let’s correct that.)
P.S. We are Pando. And Pando dies. Are we dying, too? Let’s cure the health of the leaves that we are. The cure starts with you & is a generational process. (Real Love, Simple Action; what you do & use every day matters. This is more than a slogan; the 2000 plastic bags that killed a camel represent 2000 people who said to themselves, “It is just a plastic bag!”)
***
We are Pando, and we are special leaves with special trajectory. We were given movement, feelings, intelligence & speech. And just like the leaves of Pando turn into compost feeding the soil after they are dead, so do we. Yet, this is not about our physical bodies.
This is about the generational legacy we are leaving behind; which as of now… is far from enriching. Our legacy does not support future harmonious living.
And still, we are magical leaves with a consciousness! How beautiful is that!
Human life is a miracle & so is being contemporary.
This is the Mathematics from Heaven perspective; you are a miracle, and so is everyone else, therefore, you’ll make human magic happen when you race together, not when you compete. When you cooper8, you’ll transform this place!
“You like cherries?? I like cherries! Let’s be best friends!” (Seinfeld) Be open to each other & creative, just like children.
Wish for things to happen, and they will. Some call it the law of attraction or manifesting; and while ‘believing’ is encouraged and accepted until around 10, magical thinking is seen afterwards as a form of mental illness.
Don’t give up on dreaming. Furthermore, don’t be afraid to have new dreams born despite you aging. And what is age? Life is a long day with naps in between being awake, so if I were you, I would stop counting the years.
“Where are you from?” Andorra? British Columbia? England? The right answer is, “Hello, I am from Earth!” — call this ‘the big umbrella of Love.’
We are from Earth, and these pendants of praying hands (just bones) certify we’re all the same.
Furthermore, these pendants are magical. Why? Because they are making the Deli Magic Happen!
The story goes this way: these are rare, collectible, dead-stock, hologram pendants from the 80’s; catchy. They are offered as a thank-you present (to be mailed) to the ones who donate $100 or more towards the campaign meant to gift reusable bags to delis.
This mannequin adorned with 60 pendants had a few outings since the campaign started on November 15th.
On the rare occasions it has been seen in social settings, each time people asked about the pendants, they were told,
“You are lucky! You can own this magical pendant right here, right now, if you donate 24 dollars to this campaign (instead of $100)! It is a magical pendant, so after you don8, pick the one that speaks to you, and make a wish when you have it around your neck!”
“How do you know it is magical?”
“Good question! Well, the instant you donate $24 you are making the deli magic happen; since a deli will receive reusable bags on your behalf. Therefore, this pendant works! So of course, it is only a matter of time for your wish to come true. To stay on the top of your list (like a top ten billboard hit played on repeat), just keep making it. And then, have patience & hope.”
Gratitude to all who played the magical pendant game & took advantage of the rare encounter with the mannequin!
One evening, a woman and a man both verbalized that running into the mannequin & deciding to get the pendants on the spot (versus not getting them) represented a unique moment – as in fact, they all are.
Every second we experience is a miracle that would never be possible… on Mars. Being here, alive, now, is a wonder. Furthermore, the perfect combination of numbers and values that allowed thousands of species to thrive (ours, other animals, trees and flowers, and butterflies and birds, and even Pando) is the greatest match of them all. A match made in Heaven.
However, that perfect mathematical formula that lasted hundreds of thousands of years so far is already shaking & could be forever altered… in just a very few years from now.
The ongoing rise in global temperature will bring permanent consequences once it jumps a critical point & will decimate species, melt icebergs, even release ancient sleeping bacteria & viruses, kill corals, create supercharged storms at sea, atypical hurricanes on land, flooding, droughts and massive fires.
Children’s climate anxiety will materialize into real nightmares when the harmonious Mathematics from Heaven will be torn apart.
It is estimated that the kids born today will see thousands of animal species disappear in their lifetimes!
Looks like calamities & extinction… could be our collective legacy.
Do we want that?
So, please, let’s think again what do we choose. Do we choose the good butterfly effect by making simple, peaceful personal progress in our lifestyles & habits as soon as this week? (Find easy examples in the hunt.)
Or do we choose the lanternfly defect, via lack of action?
Thank you!
P.S. Following are excerpts from “Suing the world to save it. Children pioneer a right to a secure future,” article published in The Christian Science Monitor on November 20th ’23, written by Stephanie Hanes.
“Global warming is cumulative. In other words, heat-trapping gases don’t just go away; they hang out in the atmosphere for centuries. So today’s emissions are joining those of the 1900s, trapping even more solar heat inside the Earth’s atmosphere. This means that some amount of global heating is inevitable, scientists say. Regardless of how the world adjusts today, those people born at the turn of the century will live in a world fundamentally environmentally different from what those born in 1960, or even 1980, experienced.”
“This is not only because the average temperature will get higher the more greenhouse gases go into the air. For such a life-giving planet, Earth’s environmental systems, which include everything from ocean currents and storms to heat waves and ice flows, are delicately balanced. With every added fraction of a degree comes the potential for a cascade of climatic impacts, from the sort of heat waves that cooked the Northern Hemisphere this summer to the supercharged storms that have battered everywhere from Florida to Mexico to Mozambique. A rapid decrease in greenhouse gas emissions today would make a tremendous difference in the severity and frequency of climate catastrophes in the future – and, by extension, the quality of life for young people as they reach adulthood.”
“Collective responsibility
Climate change has been called a classic “tragedy of the commons” – a situation in which individuals act in their own logical self-interest and nobody is doing anything against the law. But taken together, the individual behaviors are catastrophic to the community.”