Surviving The Fall, 3

I don`t think much about the end. Yes, I know that nothing is forever, and that I, like everyone else, have a shelf life and an end date, and that doesn`t particularly trouble me. I am aware that we could be hastening our own planet`s expiry date if we don`t change our fuel consumption, and general consumption, habits, and really fast. Somehow, I`m not worried. Concerned, yes. I do what I can, and being poor makes it easy to make a virtue of necessity, in my case, anyway. I don't have a car because, well, I can't afford one, but I wouldn't buy one anyway even if I could afford it, because of the decision I made when I was still but sixteen years old. I did not want to contribute to the kind of environmental pollution for which auto emissions are rightly notorious. I am one to stay true to his word. I also live in a region that is ninety percent reliant on renewable (hydro) energy. I don't eat meat. I try not to use plastic bags, though this isn't always easy, but I have reduced my use of plastic considerably, and I try to recycle and compost everything. My single climate sin is that I do air travel, which I suppose makes me a bit of a climate hypocrite. I am also persuaded that if everyone in my country reduced their carbon footprint to the size of mine, that our economy would crash overnight. Not that I'm particularly worried about our economy, since it has so little to do with ordinary people and everything to do with the corporate swine who daily fatten themselves on our labours. I really don't see much changing until we really begin to reconfigure our economy, and this is going to have to begin to what we define as economy: that it is not something separate from human beings, nor from our natural environment. The economy is the people; and the people are the economy. Once we start to figure this out then maybe we can get started on something that is more humane, humanity-based, and human scale. But people's thinking really has to change, and big time, for this to happen, and, well, Gentle Reader, it still ain't happenin'. One day, maybe, before it's too late, and it just might be too late. But we still don't know this. No one knows the hour or the day, whether this has to do with the Second Coming of Christ or the environmental apocalypse that always appears to be heading our way. So, how do I cope? Well, it isn't simply a matter of not worrying about it. It rather has to do with how we focus our attention. I m reluctant to use the word "mindfulness" as this is just so much fashionable Buddha-babble and really, I prefer to call it prayer, or prayerfulness. It has to do with learning to live in a state of gratitude. Believing in God, or in a higher power, by the way, is not a requisite for gratitude, but it can sure help. Enjoy what we have. Now. Be grateful for what we have. Now. Moment by moment. Bless every moment. Bless the sacred moment, the sacred now. And we will also do everything we can to effect damage control and to live in a way that makes it possible for everyone else to live.