Sharpen the axe!

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

Warning!!! Normally I send these quotes before reading the morning newspaper, but today was different...

I read a very disturbing story in the paper today about mineral resources in Ontario's Far North. It seems to me that there is a lot of axe sharpening going on by government, corporations, and other profit making interests to prepare for the extraction of those resources. By the time the tip of the iceberg shows with the roads and infrastructure construction that axe will be really sharp and ready to cut through all but their own interests. And I wonder at the power of the dollar that is driving this sharpening and the sugar coating of it to make us average people think its okay. Sure in the short term industry and jobs and development will provide a seeming net positive for society, but resource extraction almost always seems to follow a bell curve and once the rich are richer from bleeding the environmental and human capital they will take their axe somewhere else and we will be left with a fallen tree that has been sucked dry of all its life giving properties.  

Is it human nature to need to dominate everything including the planet we live on? ... Will we realize before it is too late that this need is destroying the life giving resources the Earth supplies us with ...How ironic that in our egotistical quest for ever more things we have created the machine that will destroy us.

I am hoping that the "axe" that propelled us into mindless consumerism and feeling that we need to "protect" whatever we have been blessed with from "them" is becoming duller from gross overuse. And that soon that wearing away of the surface will expose the plastic underbelly of the sharp steel; that the "them" is not even the corporations and manipulating governments that are exploiting "us", these monoliths actually are a creation of "us's". The "them" we fear is any "us" that is a little different than "us" and they have the same fears so the circle is in perpetual motion and our own creations are feeding it. 

I really hope there are a lot of other axes being sharpened and that we "the people" get over ourselves and our mindless fears that make us think our individual security is even possible if we don't look after the security of "the whole".

There is absolutely a lot we can do as individuals. There are millions of "one of Us's" but each 'one' is an integral part of the problem and a key to the solution. It would take a shift in our thinking and would be uncomfortable in the short term but, like quitting smoking; the benefits would go a long ways to improving our health and the health of our planet. 

We could take baby steps right now to sharpen our own axes! So simple, and not overwhelming if we use Abe's advice and have the patience and faith to persevere. The first step is the hardest, just like quitting smoking, the first days are the hardest and the change in our mindset does not happen over night, it happens with the first step and then the next comes. 

Like reducing plastic. Working ourselves towards eliminating single use items by refusing, returning and reusing. 

Like choosing not to buy something we don't need and give those dollars to somewhere that is actively trying to make positive change.

Like looking deeply at what we are supporting as individuals; is if for the good of what we believe in?

Like helping people anywhere and everywhere. Being conscious of our impact, deeply caring for ourselves and our world, kindness and non judgment may be the axes that can topple our addictions to greed, fear and hatred.

Cheers

Jeanne