terminal economics

As I was driving to my paying job in the city yesterday afternoon, I was listening to an interview with a Catholic thinker about our disconnect with the natural world, a phenomenon that peaked in our history with the shift to the natural-world-as-a-resource view of the industrialized world in the middle of the 19th century or so, which Thomas Berry called a terminal economy, as resources will have finite limits. I also enjoyed his description of the natural world being most important and humans as being a sub-category in the natural order of things, ie the welfare of the natural world is of a greater priority to the welfare of humans, whereas the welfare of humans has seemed to destroy much of the natural world. That there might be a price exacted by the natural world for the dis-respect showed it by humans and being "used" by humans was delightful. Berry even observed how we humans feel insult by being "used", and compared that to what is happening in the natural world. It is also useful to question our sense of separation from the natural world in the way we consider it to be "outside" our immediate interests vs viewing ourselves as inside a natural world with powers and influences over us in a most intimate way, the sense many indigenous peoples once had. He described Frances Bacon as one of the first to describe nature as something we could or should control! In light of the terrible tragedy of the S.E.Asia tsunami at the end of the old year , we should perhaps be rethinking our relationship to the natural world. Berry's descriptions of a circular world and universe was also interesting, reminding me of a description of the Gaia-world view I dimly recall reading somewhere, where the death of an atom in it's micro-cycles is mourned by the greatest stars in their orbits. Thomas Berry argues that our future as a species depends on re-examining our relationship with the earth, an idea that I think may take hold too late, our world having suffered too much at the hands of greedy humanity already.

My understanding will no doubt improve by reading some of his writing. I'll keep you posted.

I had a chance to chat with my mother the other day, and was struck again by how similar we are. She even went directly to an idea I was thinking before I could say it when I commented on the large numbers of birds at my feeders being a sign of bad weather to come. She said she'd heard on the news about wild animals sensing the coming tsunami in SEAsia and escaping...Another chance for me to comment on the disconnect of our human lives to the natural world. Did nobody observe wild animals moving away from coastlines? Did nobody think it odd and wonder why?

There is a whole world of phenomenology that farmers used to use to tell them when local conditions were right for planting, for example. What has happened to that knowledge? I am aware of some projects to re-learn those natural signs, but technological solutions seem to be more impressive. Noting that lilacs are in bloom and now may be the time to plant certain things seems like primitive old-wives' tales. Maybe it's the old-wives part that receives no value, as an andro-centric (male-centric) viewpoint dominates our world at the moment. Who knows?

Maybe I'm just cranky after the tension at my paying job this past evening of trying to differentiate between the real problems of a client and those that seemed to be created by dysfunctional behavioral/personality/relationship patterns...

And was I mistaken? Did that gentleman about 20 years older than me hint rather broadly that he'd like me to live with him? Oh dear!

Suffice to say, I badly need a head-to-toe massage! A sauna would not go astray either!

The good news is, Santa is real. I watched a lovely acquaintance of mine quickly offer a child in line in front of him the dime that the child was short of, to pay for his treat at Tim Horton's. See? I'm right, Santa is real.