The Great Disconnect and how to take the first steps towards living for real

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

We live in times that are, from one perspective, not particularly unique for all the technological veneer glossing over our daily existence. We are still flesh and blood, the same species that once lived in trees and went on to build stone circles, churches, shining office blocks. We have always had problems to overcome. But somewhere between the stone circles and the churches we started to lose our connection to the planet, and by the time the towers went up we’d altogether forgotten that we once lived in harmony with nature, and were intimately familiar with her rhythms.

This is not to romanticise our ancestors. That would be as wrong as seeing all Victorians as sexually repressed. Every society, every layer of humanity down the ages, has had its share of problems and tragedies to contend with. And yes, yes, most ancient societies conducted human sacrifices. So do we. We do it on a massive scale and call it war. We can hardly judge the ancients for the occasional slaughter of a perhaps willing and honoured virgin to make the crops grow when set against the billions who died last century alone because people couldn’t get along.

But did they get depressed, the people who built Stonehenge? Did they worry about the future? Possibly. Probably not, for in building their circles and raising their temples they did not fear the end of the world they were a part of. They saw death as important, essential. There was no concept of ever trying to fight nature. How could they?

This is a multi-page entry: page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4

categories: broomstick stuff, healthy planet, rattle bag