The world is changing…

Or is it? Is this just a reoccurring cycle in life's history?

I have been absent from the scene lately (family in town, work overload, etc), even missing a number of posts on my favorite blogs, only finding time to visit 1 or 2. Regardless, I have been thinking a lot about blogging and posts I want to share, but have also been contemplating the state of our world. There have been so many crazy, horrible, sad, destructive, and devastating things happening recently that it feels as if we are headed for H-E-double.hockey.stick in a hand basket. It’s difficult to not despair with catastrophic natural events in Japan killing thousands or the man-made disaster of a nuclear meltdown and toxic radiation spewing into the environment. How will we survive? What can we do? Is it hopeless?

I began to wonder if these feelings were nothing new and have been felt before during Chernobyl, 3-Mile Island, Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami in Southeast Asia, atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki… so many reasons for people to give up, crawl into a hole and wait to succumb to the devastation. However, we have seen some of the most dedicated environmentalist, human rights activists, movers-and-shakers, and compassionate do-gooders birth from the rubble of destruction and fight for change. Sometimes it seems to take a disaster to open people's eyes and motivate ideas for creating a better world. The biggest tool for change is education and awareness. I have really been encouraged and informed by Dr. Helen Caldicott at Nuclear Free Planet.org. I appreciate her passion for change and her honest assessment of nuclear situations and radiation risks around the globe.

Ultimately the take-away point seems to be “never give up, never surrender”, “where there is a will, there is a way” and “run the race, keep the faith”. Yes, we as a species are currently destroying the earth, period. But to do nothing about it means we are complicit in the devastation. Hang in there everyone and nature just may find a way to forgive us :)