Make your mama proud
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,” read a line from a poem recited by my second grandchild, Kaith, with which she received a medal award. She delivered the poem with so much conviction that perhaps the audience believed everything created was still in its creation state, majestic and bountiful.
After 200 years of industrialization, what has become of God’s creation? Our mountains are bald as urbanization extends to the mountain areas. More lumber is needed for housing development. Yes, it is true that with the advent of modern technology, paperless communication lessened cutting of trees for paper production. However, extensive use of energy is the downside.
With the global population now in billions, how do we strike a balance between our needs and conservation? We anchor our wants on materialism. Commerce and industry in their peak resulted in widespread consumerism. Science and technology advancement encouraged our young to invent and innovate. There is just so much stuff in the market as free trade, open market, bargains bring people to new business adventures. How quickly we have depleted our resources?
We have redefined creation to what is now bright and beautiful according to our new standard of perfection. Unless an item has been produced, manufactured and crafted, we deem it is of lesser value. We are less appreciative of what is in its raw form. Before, a lover simply plucks a flower from a garden and hands it to his beloved. Now, the blossoms are arranged, wrapped and tied with a ribbon. While before we enjoyed the beaches and the native cottages nearby that were made available to us, now we have leveled up, concrete structures on our beach fronts like in Boracay.
We consume at a faster pace now that everything is instant. We also use energy faster than we did decades ago. If we charge our gadgets three times in a given day, this indicates that we have used up energy thrice as much. How productive was that usage? If we only chatted for hours and exchanged expletives in social media, might as well pick up the broom and help in the household chores. Your mama will be proud of you.
It is not enough to conserve energy as we join Earth Hour; we have to show genuine concern for the environment in all of our waking hours. Otherwise, we are simply going through the motions and not really making a remarkable effort to conserve our environment.