These are very tough times for the world’s people right now. There is the virus going around, many governments (worldwide) are becoming more and more dictatorial, suppressing such things as human rights, the right to vote, and fair and balanced systems. I’ve included another video, down below, by Dr. Campbell, for you to look at if you have not seen it already. He sagaciously suggests something similar to what i have been blogging about for a very long time… that we should stay local — not pollute the air by (needlessly) flying in jet planes (that most all of us ludicrously assume we have a “right” to fly around in) — and produce and consume more goods locally, rather than (cheaply) getting them from overseas. Our population, too, needs to be kept in check. The over-populated (crowded-in-large-groups-cities) Native American Hopewell culture likely descended from the earlier low population hunter/gatherer Adena culture. With much larger populations concentrated together (in large “towns”), the Hopewell culture went through devastating periods of human to human disease transmissions (i.e., devastating viruses); this may have been the primary reason for the Hopewell culture’s demise. Sound familiar? But people tend not to learn; they tend to follow and merely imitate; hence, dictators and lack of freedom are popping up again as phenomena. Few people, in the many nations, are really talking about lowering population levels. So my premonitions (from childhood) about deadly viruses and a deadly-polluted globe seem to be, indeed, transpiring.
To compromise a lot and to look the other way and make excuses is not great order. Only great order as (and of) the mind can allow the possibility of a true (not fabricated) visitation by that sacred, eternal energy to take place. Then there is a real communion, not all of that phony stuff. If it (i.e., such a visitation) never takes place in one’s life, then one’s life may have, unfortunately, turned out to be like a seed that never germinates, an egg that never hatches. With such visitation may come real wisdom about the whole, and not all of that phony stuff; with it, eternity is revealed deeply, and superficiality continues to significantly dissipate.
Dr. Campbell is right, we need to be close to nature and the outdoors. We need to be responsible for our little, delicate planet. We need to care.
Please, if you are able, donate to your local food bank (as we have been repeatedly doing).
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
While I make no claim to being clairvoyant, I too have seen this coming. That is only because I have paid attention to history. Gaia has ways of keeping us in check and providing messages for us to heed. Many of us have become too set in our ways, too focused on the me, to be in tune to these messages. I agree on the points you and Dr. Campbell make, but truth telling may take a while. Perhaps in November, during the next election, we can set a course towards that agenda. I’m focusing my energy on that goal.
People are taking very long to wake up and be responsible. Yes, too many are set in their ways, too focused on the “me,” too immersed in dead acceptances.
Yes, hopefully, things in November will change for the better. Currently, there is a real monster in charge (in the U.S.) who cares nothing about the environment and everything about $$$$. I am mostly apolitical, but people who voted for him ought to be ashamed… very ashamed.
Unfortunately they’re not ashamed, they’re proud. Most of the people protesting yesterday were wearing red hats or waving banners as though it was one of his rallies. When asked about these people at yesterday’s briefing, he stated that these people should heed the advice of their governors. Today he followed up by tweeting encouragement to these idiots. It’s almost as though we’re watching a Monty Python skit, but the only thing missing is “nod, nod, wink, wink”. If he only realized that if he stepped up and took control of this situation, he could probably win in November. 🤮 Instead, the US is the laughingstock of the world. 🇺🇸
I listened to the video, I can see the wisdom of doing more things locally and when I move (that may be a while now) I will plant a little garden on the balcony. Some on antisocial media are calling our government fascist, which is a long stretch, but I have some concern there will be fascist factions rising up in the name of freedom but will actually take it away.
Yes, fascist factions rising up in the name of freedom and taking it away. It can happen; it happened before. Hopefully, you will plant that little garden and live in peace beyond all of the hypocrisy, chaos, and manipulation. Stay safe, Jane.
Will the big 50th anniversary of Earth Day be as relevant this year Tom? No, everyone is intent on getting out to resume their normal life … they will not care anymore than the 49th anniversary. We need to take care of our fragile Earth and show it some love – it is as delicate as this wildflower you have included in the post. Yes, we do not have enough resources here because we don’t make our own and get them from other countries as it is cheaper to do so. I heard yesterday that there is only one company here in the U.S. that makes the long swabs used for testing for the Coronavirus. The company owner has people working one very long shift, with just Sunday off. When asked why he could not run more shifts and go seven days a week, he said he could not do that to his employees. (I wondered why he would not just get more employees, but maybe there is a reason for that statement.) So he is an owner with heart, but surely he does not have the monopoly on making these swabs here in the U.S.?
Mostpeople won’t care on the 22nd, just like mostpeople don’t care for the other 364 days of the year. (It’s just how mostpeople are… or aren’t.)
Yes, 7 days a week (of work) would just be too much. Five days a week is bad enough! I don’t know what companies are making the tests for this virus, but one thing is for sure: a lot more tests are sorely needed and the current administration is not demanding nearly enough testing. They are doing a good job of ruining the U.S. and Putin must be very happy.
Stay safe, Linda… and avoid mostpeople.
Yes, the state of affairs these days leave me shaking my head most days Tom. Our Governor was on today, an hour-long press conference to say she doesn’t know what she will do in ten days – she is likely going with the rest of the Midwest governors, but said she will still be cautious – so people, of course, will be filing more lawsuits, staging more rallies. You hear them say how safe it is to be out – one of the original protesters in Ohio who was crying about his rights being tramped on has now died of Coronavirus. Today the youngest victim of this virus died – she was 5 years old, the daughter of two first responders, a fireman and a policewoman. They are both fine as of this writing. As to Earth Day, no – nothing changes – it is the same as the perfunctory phonecall to Mom or Pop on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day respectively – not much thought, no visits or phonecalls the rest of the year. I am staying safe and remaining masked up – you two do the same Tom.
To far too many, it’s all about $ and conflicts instilled by the likes of the dangerous (foreign-owned) Fox News. We are going to stay safe at home and not take chances (with all these nut jobs going around). You do the same, Linda!
thanks Tom for posting. Somewhat worried about some world leader attitude in these troubled times.
Yes, i understand all too well, Andy. Like what i said to Linda above.
Take care and stay safe… despite all of the insanity.
🙂
A very interesting post, Tom
Thanks, Leyla! 🙂 It probably won’t change much but that is normal (in our insanely normal population).
With this pandemic people are beginning to appreciate and make use of what is available in their local markets, which should have been done long before..
In my home country, the cities with the most number of population is also the ones with enormous number of cases. And the ones in the rural areas barely have reported cases…
May this be an awakening to all..
Stay safe😊😊😊
Yes, Michelle, overcrowding is an unnatural condition. It is unnatural on little planets and it is unnatural in aquariums. Crowd a lot of fish in an aquarium and you know what you get? Sick and dead fish is what you get. India is too crowded in spots and the U.S. is too crowded in spots. But people don’t tend to wake up and politicians are not addressing overpopulation at all.
We should be smarter than some damn little fish.
Take care, Michelle and stay safe! 🙂
Thanks Tom..stay safe too..
Some of the same ‘home country’ attributes where I’ve retired to. To all that have shared on this thread, here is a bit of good news: A CDC chart we all need to see: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/covid-crash-incredible-chart-msm-doesnt-want-see/ –
On CDC’s own website in a very graphic chart shows the coronavirus is truly dying out – when will we see, hear, or read this information in MSM?
You said it Tom: “To compromise a lot and to look the other way and make excuses is not great order. Only great order as (and of) the mind can allow the possibility of a true (not fabricated) visitation by that sacred, eternal energy to take place. ” I would add the body to the mind – after all our feelings reside in our bodies and in order to be in touch with them we need not to ‘transcend’ in any way…
Other than this one point I couldn’t agree more…. GORGEOUS picture.
Thanks, Sara.
I don’t know where you got the word ‘transcend’ from. There is nothing really there (psychologically) that is truly evolving or transcending anyway. The body can, and does, have feelings (sensations and such) and the mind also is often composed of feelings, compassion or anger, for example. Like thoughts, some feelings reflect from order and some are of disorder.
Take care, Sara, and stay safe! 🙂
While much attention is focused on state and national leadership (and rightly so), there are examples of local leadership becoming a little too enamored of their ability to dictate behavior. I found the suggestion by the mayor of NYC that citizens there should report one another for violations of his orders to be terrifying. There are books that describe that sort of thing, and countries who have experienced it. I suppose the good news is that the reaction was relatively swift, and in some cases quite amusing.
I’ve become more and more local in my buying habits over the past years, and it’s certainly paid off recently. I know where to obtain food locally, for example, and while others were complaining about the lack of eggs, meat, and so on, I was able to find them from people in the community. That not only benefits me, it benefits them as well, as they try to cope with a diminished economy.
I disagree with your above view. My wife and i are both very high risk. A lot of people are too damn dumb and uncaring to have any compassion about elderly people and high-risk people. Florida (beaches and such) is a sad example… with a fool for a governor. My wife had Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome in the past. Now she has half of her lung capacity. Half! She cannot eat and gets her food through a tube that goes to her stomach. A lot more people have health issues, compromised lungs, and asthma than you might think. Freedom to jeopardize others’ health is not freedom. Turn the cold-hearted SOBs in.
It’s great to be far more local in buying and in personal space. Yes, buying locally really benefits your local community; it helps keep some people going when otherwise they may fail.
Keep safe, Linda.
I both agree and disagree with you here. Of course our behavior should be such that those who are compromised in some way aren’t threatened by it. We’ve had plenty of experience of dumb and uncaring here, which is why our beaches were closed.
I’ve made adjustments to my own life to abide by various best practices, including not visiting friends who are vulnerable themselves. But anonymous reporting of people to the ‘authorities’ troubles me, perhaps because I’ve had experiences in dictatorships where arbitrary decision-making was the rule. Once I had my passport demanded by a gun-toting young man who refused to give it back, and it shaped my view on some things more than reading Brave New World. It seems to me we ought to be able to both deal with a pandemic and avoid other kinds of bad behavior.
In any event, the beauty of it is that we can talk about rules we might disagree with — even as we continue to adhere to them for the sake of ourselves and others!
I saw the films of those “open” beaches. People were congested together — right on top of each other — and were drinking heavily and partying heavily. Then they have a “right” to go to the grocery store that we go to and spew a bunch of deadly viruses around; these viruses can last for days on surfaces. Such beaches need to closed. Freedom isn’t freedom when innocent people get butchered because of others’ lack of compassion and empathy.
If you are so frightened about freedom being stolen, Linda, why are you not at all, in your blogging expressions, writing more about how the GOP is actively suppressing voting rights in a good number of states, or about the caging (and separation) of families and children by the current administration, or about Trump installing his “family” in the government and talking about being president for 10 or 14 years (and longer), or about how the Mueller Report (in its entirety) has been connivingly suppressed, or about the so-called president being Putin’s puppet while embracing other murderous dictators, etc.?
“Freedom or Covid-19” … yeah, right… real sick Fox News Hannity (who graduated from high school) sub-intelligence there!
Tom, we all too often have short-term memory. Will people remember? I saw a satellite image where they showed areas like NY and California devoid of the normal blockade of smog and air pollution that typically shows up on these earth images. It is my prayer that we remember and see how much our ecosystems have flourished while we have been self-contained. Interesting huh?
Kym, you are young. You probably haven’t seen as much blindness and indifference as i’ve seen. Heck, even Greta Thunberg gets tons of hate mail… which is really frightening. Some people will see the clean air and will change but most will not. It’s the way people are. The permafrost has been melting out of control for some time now, with scientists telling humanity that it has to wake up and change. Have we changed significantly? No.
I feel that real prayer is action, not mental wishes. We’ve done a lot of things environmentally to make a difference here at our house. Hopefully, more (undeadfromtheheartup) people will wake up and actually change things; that would be more than wonderful!
Stay safe, Kym.
CHANGE…mindsets and motivations! Whether or not we see it in our lifetime, it maybe too late, sooner than later. Its only but so much abuse this planet and people can take! 😦 I’m almost 62 years young BTW! LOL 😀
Ha! Well, you are not as young as i thought! 🙂
Yes, this poor, little planet… and many of the people, animals, and plants upon it, have taken far too much abuse.
If many people do not change, then Nature will surely issue revenge again.