When i am out in society sometimes — like grocery shopping, for instance — and see people, sometimes my eyes almost start tearing. One just feels sorry for them. It’s a tough life out there, and many people are really struggling, really suffering. You, if you at all observant, can see it in their eyes. Especially when i see children, i feel something deep inside. They will be living in a world much more difficult to live in than the one that i lived most of my life in. There will be many more people and less space. There will be fewer jobs, more pollution, even more propaganda, and less truly healthy food. The chances of them being educated rightly in a truly decent, alternative (non-mediocre) school with no more than 8 kids in a classroom and with much emphasis on wisdom, compassion, hands-on experiences (like growing vegetables outdoors, exploring nature, and making solar panels), on understanding beyond standard patterns, and on seeing life as a whole… are almost nil.
Then one looks at the adults. Many seem aged and “worn out” before their time. Many show the effects of endless junk food, alcohol, and endless synthetic medications (prescribed by doctors who, these $-oriented days, are more like puppets of the pharmaceutical companies than true counselors about healthy living patterns and natural cures). (Don’t get me wrong, many people need to be on prescription drugs… but not to the extent being dished out in this pill-happy day and age.) Even a lot of our standard vitamins — tons of them really — these days, are largely made from synthetic products (derived from petroleum). For instance, synthetic vitamin E does not come from a natural food source and is generally derived from petroleum products. Synthetic vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol or any variation starting with dl-) is found in many commonly-sold multivitamin supplements, such as Centrum. You can’t help but feel sorry for people when you see what is being done to them. Fragmentation within minds abounds, which inevitably manifests as disorder, indifference, and conflict. It’s a crazy world. Additionally, repercussions happen, and the disorder that ensues deleteriously affects the animals of the world too. (There are good, holistic, magnanimous people too, but there are not nearly enough of them.)
In a big way, one really can’t blame people for what they are. They are a product of their education (or maybe we should say “miseducation”) and their environment. Very few of us really break free, truly intelligently question everything, and stand alone beyond all of the standard, mundane conditioning. Most people psychologically consist of their conditioning. It is very difficult to get people to change fundamentally… not according to any blueprint or pattern, not according to some concocted religion or government, but wisely, independently, and holistically beyond all of the antiquated past. It is sad — it’s tragic really — that so many inevitably end up falling in a rut, stagnating, and then dying. Things could be very different but, so far, the magic isn’t happening to a very great extent. But we could wake up and help change things.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
Reading this post is like listening to myself… I see the same patterns – numbed out people dependent upon this or that – pick the poison – sad people hiding behind what I call the “American Smile” that ridiculous happy face. Angry people with guns who threaten others… no peace anywhere. In my case I write to save my own life and to advocate for nature hoping that someone will have ears to hear…Americans for all their wealth and stuff are not a happy people…this is what is.
Yes, Sara, so many hide behind the pretense that their lives are fine and wonderful. I’m sure that you are aware that things cannot be wonderful in the negligent way that we’ve treated nature… misused nature. What we are inwardly, we project outwardly. The world is full of reckless division and insecurity because — on the inside — we are divided, look with separation, and are insecure.
Keep awareness for nature alive, Sara. 🙂
Tom – you nail it : What we are inwardly, we project outwardly. The world is full of reckless division and insecurity because — on the inside — we are divided, look with separation, and are insecure.
I actually feel relief when I read your posts – someone gets it and can stay in the truth of what is – do you ever feel that way?
Thank you thanks you for highlighting the splits all of us carry and need to be aware of.
Thanks much, Sara. 🙂 We need to give Mother Nature back more of her fair share.
That photo has an important message!
I hope so, Sue. (It’s from the middle of my yard.) 🙂
So beautiful, great picture Tom!
Is a dandelion flowers?
Yes, a dandelion flower with a honeybee. 🙂
Beautifully put if such a subject can ever be considered beautiful.
Thanks, Steffen. 🙂 We must do better than “being indifferent.”
For the most part, I agree with your piece. However, I may be more optimistic than you. I’m more concerned about our democracy, barriers to our right to vote, and corporations having the same rights as people. Still, keep up the good fight.
Ah, Ken, i wish i could be more optimistic. But i don’t see enough serious people in the world. Science is not going to save us (as many were led to believe). Species are going extinct at a faster rate than most all of the prior mass extinction events.
Thanks, Ken! 🙂
Tom. As members of the “older generation” and having been around the block a few times, I totally agree with your comments. However, one has to consider if those people that you mentioned are products of our society and are we in fact, looking at the future norm. Life evolves and not necessarily for the good but there is no turning the clock back, unfortunately. The way we were brought up does not compare or come even close to todays family or even the modern way of life, unfortunately, but to them, that is life and the only one they know. Great post, as always.
Thanks much, Francis! 🙂 Things were more simple and basic years ago. Instead of all this plastic garbage, that is for the most part not really recycled even after we place it into the “recycle bin,” one wishes we could go back to the returnable bottles/containers. But that won’t happen, will it?
Tom, I can so relate to what you are expressing. Loved this: “One really can’t blame people for what they are. They are a product of their education (or maybe we should say “miseducation”) and their environment.” I agree, as you eloquently put it, that so many inevitably end up falling in a rut, stagnating, and then dying. They exist without truly living. 😥 Very good commentary my friend! Stay well. ☺
Thanks much, Kym! 🙂 Yes, mediocrity and blind acceptance are not too hard to find in this day and age…
Beautiful close up of a tiny world on a flower, Tom. Though I agree with parts of your post, I am more optimistic about future generations. As a 20+ year volunteer who worked with kids, I’ve seen their hardships but also the joy they express over simple things. I have come to admire the work of some of them, such as Greta Thunberg. Just my opinion… 😁
Yes, i too have worked with children (i.e., as a teacher for those with multiple and mental handicaps). Many were full of joy, real innocence, and pure simple being, and they stayed that way. But too many (so-called normal) kids turn with the tides and turn into mediocre adults. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions, but not enough of them. I too love Greta Thunberg. Her view is much more like mine; it is more realistic rather than optimistic. Anyway, i hope that you are right and that i am wrong. This is one thing i really do wish i am wrong about. 🙂
Beautiful image!
Your thoughts are sobering – accurate from what I’ve observed and studied – distressing. Simply too many of us on this planet, triggering all the power struggles and squeezing all into conformities that do not come naturally.
Yes, Jazz; you have some of the great wisdom of reality. It certainly is not what you and i want, but it is what it is. For so many, it is easy to look and see what they want to see… and it is not what really is. Here in the U.S., there has been more conflict and division than ever. Major issues, like overpopulation, nuclear weaponry, and how artificial intelligence can soon create havoc in the world, are not significantly being dealt with to any reasonable extent.
Thanks, Jazz! 🙂
I hope and I pray for the “waking up and changing things” part.
Yes, Nancy, me too. 🙂 But don’t hold your breath.
Fortunately, some of us do wake up and change things that we can. The rest nature will take care of in due time. The earth will survive our species whether we wise up or self-destruct. Enlightenment even if only for a moment is forever.
Ah, yes, YearnForWater, enlightenment is forever. Stagnation is of limitation.
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I never realized a dandelion had so many little squiggly ends on it! Nice to “bee” with you again is a perfect caption. Like you, I’m glad I grew up in the same era – too much has changed the last few years and not just what you mention herein, but climate change is one that affects me the most. The erratic weather we have nowadays is worrisome and so far from what we’re accustomed too. I have not been out and about with people that much the last decade due to working from home and mostly keeping to myself at home and out in nature (and this was before COVID). I heard a statistic in a new story yesterday – should I be flabbergasted to learn this fact about residents in the State of Michigan? “What was considered essential at the height of the pandemic? The National Addiction Center surveyed 3,000 people over the age of 21; one in five, or 19% of Michigan residents, said alcohol was more important than toilet paper.” God help us going forward.
Yes, Linda, we didn’t know how good we had it, though things were far from perfect even back then. Well, when i mentioned the coming of “more pollution” for kids, in my mind “climate change,” of course was part of it. I’m sure that you, being outdoors a lot with nature’s wonderful critters, have noticed the erratic winds and the lack of calmness regarding the weather. The weather will be getting much more violent, and we humans are to blame. Nature had a little bit of a reprieve, but now people are once again crowding into planes for entertainment purposes.
Unbelievable about the alcohol/toilet paper survey that you mentioned! And Michigan has been having record numbers of Covid cases still.
I too have been slugging it out alone. I likely will be doing volunteer work at a local hospital soon, as a concierge, which would be nice, just to get out. But i do have my hands full with all of the indoor critter-pets that live with me. 🙂
I worry about the erratic weather – something wiping out my house. Even high-wind days and old trees in the neighborhood. People have said to me “what’s your concern; this is what you pay house insurance for.” That’s not my mindset. I am looking forward to retirement – I’ve worked since I was 17 and I just have a premonition that something is going to destroy that bliss and through no fault of my own. Perhaps it is silly thinking that way. I’d be amenable to doing volunteer work, but not away. My house needs to be organized and decluttered badly. Between work, blogging and walking, I do the minimal amount of work in the house … not good I know, but more and more I realize I need to cater to myself. I remember the stories about how clear the water was in the Venice canals with the lack of tourism. We took a pause, nature thrived, but it sadly was not going to last. I know you have your pets but they give you comfort. I’m not willing to take that chance on pets again … I have squirrel pets instead. The stats on the alcohol/toilet paper left me shaking my head.
I need to do a bit more cleaning in the house. I’m not a cleanaholic but i do keep up with the cleaning (good enough for me).
For the most part, Homo sapiens is not good for the rest of nature.
Nothing will be the same as it was prior to Covid. I look at friends and colleagues and see tired and exhausted faces, and many wondering if this is all there is. There never was a normal, but our patterns are changing and as you say, there will be so much for the younger ones to contend with.
Yes, Paul. We had it better in the past, though things were far from perfect. In a way, we humans, regarding the environment, are like a person who has throat and lung cancer, and who continues to smoke through their tracheostomy tube.
Thanks, Paul, and smile beyond all the mess anyway. 🙂
This is so true! I especially loved the last paragraph, miseducation is something which can be seen not only among the ones who aren’t so lucky as to get a good education but it can be seen amongst the ones with a good education too. Sometimes people’s beliefs or the wrong things they’re taught as kids lead them astray (sorry if I got off topic here lol)
Yes, miseducation happens to the rich and poor alike. And yes, beliefs do lead people very astray. Why can’t we help all others (children and adults alike) to go beyond beliefs, just to look and investigate with awareness and compassion? Then the world would likely be a much better — and less divided — place. It’s our beliefs that divide us.
Yes I completely agree
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I think an unnecessary urge to compete has put people in a sorry state of affairs. Even the necessities like good food and health are getting out of reach for many people!
A dandelion is a perfect image for this post. Beauty and resilience despite the obstacles.
Very nice
A human is capable of being sympathetic or empathetic. When your are empathetic you not only understands what others are going through but also feel their pain as if it was your own. Empathetic poeple often end up doing a lot of things for humanity. You are right that a person is product of their education. But there are so many poeple who do not get a chance at education. Someone whose parents either died or abandoned them. What do you think they are made of?
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