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True story. Ran in the 7 July 2007 edition
of the Springfield, Illinois JOURNAL REGISTER.
A woman driving down Greenbriar Road in Springfield notices a large male
swan sitting, as in squatting, planted, holding court in the middle of
the road. On the side of the road the woman notices a female swan and
five cygnets–baby swans. Mute swans as they are called. A conclave, an
assembly, a swarm of mute swans on a city street. Unusual? Yes. Sort of.
Springfield is a city of roughly 115,000. There is the occasional
rabbit, squirrel, other assorted varmints and, yes, even ducks and swans
walking about the less traveled byways and roadways. So the woman, being
a compassionate and caring woman, is immediately concerned that the
swans, the male in particular, might be in danger of getting hit by one
of those towering, gas-guzzling SUVs swishing up and down the roads, or
a littler car driven by an inattentive cell-phone junkie. Here is where
the story gets absolutely riveting.
The compassionate woman pulls up and stops in front of the male mute
swan sitting in the road. She gets out of her van and takes a step
toward the bird. We can assume she was intent on shooing it out of the
roadway to protect it from possible mishap. But the swan rises from his
majestic setting position in the road and, with wings flapping and
heckles raised, attacks the compassionate woman. The woman scurries back
to her van where the swan continues the attack upon the van itself. The
attack lasts for five minutes.
End of story.
Sort of.
Think melting ice, dirty air, vanishing rain-forests, depleting
ozone–the latest crisis as in global warming. Mother Gia is in trouble.
You want to help. So you cut your carbon footprint in half, plant a
tree, eliminate the use of paper as much as possible including using
toilet tissue made from recycled paper, and switch to alternative fuel
sources for car and home. It is not a step back to nature but an attempt
to co-exist and be in step with nature. Nature, the mute swan of it all,
plopped down in the middle of Man’s highway to innovation, newness and
the latest type of me-pod. Save Nature. Gently usher Mother Nature to
the side of the road so those swishing SUVs and mumbling, inattentive
cell-phone addicts do not cause this great thing we have going to become
a Mars-like orb of dust. Step out of your comfortable life and help. Do
something positive for Gia. But before you take that allegorical step
out of the van like the woman in Springfield, ponder a riddle.
How do you make the distinction between arrogance and ignorance?
Consider: planet earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. Humankind, the
type that guzzles fossil fuels and in general just consumes stuff, has
been around for an infinitesimal fraction of that time. Right now, this
very moment, there may be planets like Earth that are older or younger,
with or without animals, percolating with crisp, clean water or spewing
their last molecules of oxygen out into the vacuum of space. Once
vibrant, earth-like planets may have succumbed to the laws of physics or
the greater dynamics of the Universe and their time as hosts of life
have come to an end. Just as likely, there may even now be earth-like
planets with crusaders amidst what passes as industrial smokestacks
yelling warnings and alarms of impending doom, doomed and fading
nonetheless because no one is listening.
Before stepping out of that allegorical van, ponder the above. Examine
your questions. Your questions do not have answers. Or at least, the
questions you might have about the “physics” or the “dynamics of the
universe” and dying planets do not have answers. Our science really has
no concrete answers for these type of questions, only speculation and
theory. But there is one question you can ask yourself and you and only
you can answer: Is it your intent to step out of that van because of
your love of earth or because of your love of your fellow Man? Either
way you answer, you end up in a conundrum. But only one of the possible
answers shows a lack of arrogance. The other answer shows both arrogance
and ignorance.
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