Everyday the world gives us so many reasons to have a heavy heart. Global warming, poverty, threats of war, cruelty, disease and most recently, vulgar and unworthy leadership.
Fighting the state of affairs with a heavy heart can only feed the cause of darkness in its attempt to veil our bright world. No. We will fight it with dance, music, art, inspiration and goodness. The darkest of nights cannot extinguish the light of one single candle.
Good night from Germany.
Day 14 of 365
History and civilizations are not linear in their development…
Each time I look at remains of ancient civilizations like the Chinese, the Mayans, the Romans, the Greeks, and the Egyptians, I find it quite difficult to relegate the fact that a lot of what is evident in their artifacts and architecture points to a more developed culture in certain ways than what we are witnessing today. Despite the post-industrial revolution’s speedy advancements in technology, I find that comparing for example the pyramids, temples, artwork of the ancient Egyptians, today’s Egypt appears to be primitive in so many ways.
This leads me to wonder where the human race has gone wrong. Did we deviate in some way from the glory that could have been? Or is a world engrossed in wars, poverty, global warming, revolutions and failed leaderships the way of the future?
We find ourselves in a world that has more and more toxic bodies of water every year. You see a river or a sea on a hot, humid day and your first instinct is to jump in and get refreshed, but doing so in most cities might just cost you your health, life or skin! And still we go on polluting…
photo taken: a ferry between Hong Kong island and Kowloon
It has become forcefully clear that change is upon us. Hurricanes, volcanos, floods, global warming, waves of animal extinction, earthquakes, tsunami, revolutions, uprisings, new and strange weather trends and even down to people becoming unsettled and unable to cope emotionally with the fast onset of change.
But we live on a planet of duality and positive changes are certain to accompany the negative an the threatening. But as all things fine, a human development change will be more difficult to detect, to know where it is coming from, to tune into, to be with and to grow and evolve with.
This year Shanghai reached the highest level of pollution ever recorded in its history…
On days like this, the city looks surreal, almost like a futuristic movie, the kind that forecasts a not so bright future, where people have to move around with masks (as is actually the case here) and where the sky looks all kinds of murky colors. It is frightening really what we are doing to our planet, and how happily most of us seem to go about ignoring it. And Shanghai is only one of many polluted cities on our pretty blue (not so blue anymore thanks to us) globe.
Looking forward to some clean air in our the next month of travel! Greetings from Shanghai!
Today, I spent most of my day in the city streets preparing for Lea’s birthday party tomorrow, and my mind was taking me on a familiar train of thought that I have had now for years.
I often think of our planet. I try to zoom a bit out of the small things of daily life and try to perceive of her long life(billions of years)compared to ours, which seems like a split second if you think about it. Then I think of our use of her resources, like fuel, electricity, mining, deforestation (you know, the whole global warming issue), and I somehow cannot help to think of this post industrial revolution era as a very very short period in the planet’s long history. I tend to then think of it as a parasitic phase when we the humans decided to feed on the blood of our host, our planet. And then I think, well, what’s keeping her from smacking us like we would an annoying mosquito?
Happy Friday everyone! Sorry for the graphic ponder today, but I really wonder sometimes…
photo taken, the city outside my window reflected in a glass sphere
Today I was very overwhelmed with the state of the world, wars, revolutions, poverty, instability, pollution, global warming, solar flares, and a general sense of unsettlement.
Then in the afternoon we had Lea’s twin friends over for a play date then sleep over and I watched them play, laugh, sing, dance and be in the moment without any worries, just as children need to be.
It then made me think about the world that we the responsible adults are leaving for them. What kind of future are we preparing them for?