The Art of Harmony
The Old English Dictionary: Harmony concord, accord, agreement, peace, peacefulness, amity, amicability, friendship, fellowship, comradeship, solidarity, cooperation, understanding, consensus, unity, sympathy, rapport, goodwill, like-mindedness.
I have long thought of our Planet Earth as a living breathing being. Like humans, it has its ups and downs throughout the millennials of existence. The Holocene (“entirely recent”) epoch, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age in which we now live within has been harmonious most of the time for humans to thrive and evolve.
I look at images of our Planet Earth as taken from the space station, and the wonder of the creation of this tiny speck in the cosmos, it is truly a work of art in comparison with the other planets in our solar system. No where else in our planetary system are there the spectacular and beautiful life forms in our oceans and on land. There are no artists which can produce art that would compare with the Art of Nature.
After reading a new book published this year about Doug Tompkins, an environmentalist who lived and breathed his love of “beauty” of our world, my thoughts were of how our present cultures are in direct opposition of being in Harmony with our Planet Earth. We are, All, artists in the way we paint our daily lives. Do we paint our day with the brushes of garbage, pollution, excess of wants, or, do we paint our day with the brushes of buying only what we Need, and can use without creating the garbage of pollution. Doug Tompkins painted with his brush by creating National Parks in South America.
Drinking water from plastic bottles, instead of water fountains like we used to do, pampers for babies instead of cloth dippers fill our landfills. Huge cars and trucks with more horsepower than is needed to take us on frivolous trips which have no imperative to be harmonious with Nature, is our “Right” to do without thinking of the consequence of each act. Do we look at each day and wonder how we can be in harmony with our planet Earth, and use the brushes of harmony with Nature for the endurance of the human species? The Planet Earth will be here long after our species dies off due to the brushes of greed and wants, and our human existence will not suffer the continuous creation of garbage, because we believe it is our “Right”, this Life Style of Western Culture.
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| A million bottles a minute...Humanity paint brushes for the Planet Earth. |
The Art of Harmony with Nature should be our primary concern and needs to be the predominate brush with which we paint our days. Our art works will determine the continuation of our Human Species or Not. Understanding, in the above definition, is the most important of all of the synonyms. If we do not understand the consequences of our painting in our daily lives, the pictures of Harmony of Art with Nature will not be in our Museum of Human History.
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| The Paint brushes of Doug Tompkins |
