Graduate from Valentine Day to Earth Day

 

Lewis Black: “What I find most disturbing about Valentine's Day is, look, I get that you have to have a holiday of love, but in the height of flu season, it makes no sense.”

Doesn’t seem to make much sense to me either, especially when I get sadly comparative about the enthusiasm between Earth Day and Valentine day.

I sadly brood over the massive collective losses. It’s Earth Day, passing off like any other inconsequential day. On the other hand, Valentine Day makes a far bigger noise and catches attention. Media is full of it. People themselves are so eager to celebrate it. Well, nothing wrong with that. Symbolism of love and affection in relationships has its utility and importance. But it also shows how confined and limited, almost self-seeking, is our interpretation of love and care. Mind you, it might even be merely skin deep, shallow and funny. Most of us realize it very soon, by the way, in any case.

The best part of being human—our beautiful emotions and the awareness of good and bad—has been imprisoned so tightly that we just trample ahead with our tiny, boxed up, suffocating emotions, totally unconcerned about what is getting trampled under our feet.

We carry tremendous insecurity. Every fellow human is a competitor and rival to beat. No wonder the things that really matter, the issues that are make or break for all of us, the great common ground, hardly get attention. So the plight of mother earth is not that big an issue. It’s the nightmare that we simply delegate to the future generations to face and suffer about. If as parents we sacrifice our present to make our children’s future, cannot we just take a few more steps to be bothered about the future a few generations down the line?

There is a rat race of domination among all countries. There are elaborate geo-strategic plans to capture future for themselves. Plunder of natural resources, development of weapons of mass destruction, genocides, communal killings, and scores of the evils of modernity, where does it take us all. Mankind is certainly the most aware species on earth, but the most foolish as well. Of course foolish because what else it is to keep moving in a direction where, in complete knowledge of it happening, there will be fire and destruction. It’s as foolish as setting the house on fire, and getting full throttle creative about setting a luxurious bed for a night-long rest.

So the biggest stage—mother earth—is shaking and creaking under the hooves of the prudent-most animal on earth. What value the victory carries if the place you have fought for is bound to be crumbled to pieces in future? What does a luxurious bed stand for if the house itself will burn? Hope the earthlings realize that the biggest reason for them to feel insecure is for mother earth itself. Other levels of insecurities, and the consequent strife, confrontations and wars, come later. Even the fights of ego need a solid stage. What does victory mean on a dying planet?

Suppose the aliens approach us. And they will definitely some day or other. It’s just a matter of time. It’s creditable to believe that there are intelligent forms of life in the universe around. So once they arrive, won’t we be simply earthlings in the face of a common threat? Then these caste, class, communal and national divides will melt. It’s high time we realize that the great commonality that supports and sustains us, Mother Nature, is under threat.

There is a common enemy, environmental degradation, the result of our rampant plunder and greed, the evil spin off of our self-seeking bad habit. Let it be recognized as such and a fight launched against it. Let it be done before it is too late. Because the cycle of destruction, once it crosses the critical limit, becomes irreversible.

Save earth! Celebrate Earth Day with as much fervor as you celebrate Valentine day! Take your love a degree further by graduating your embrace for your lover to include some tree nearby. At least try to plant a tree, with due follow up during its growth phase of course, on Earth Day. Throw a bash for your partner. That will bring laughter around. Give mother earth one more soldier, a tree, to fight the poisonous fruits of our misdeeds. It will bring a smile to you.

These are simple exercises to help you evolve from the narrowly defined, relationship-squeezed definition of love, to reach the higher trajectory where unfathomable bliss awaits you.