Letter: Respect your mother

Earth Day is a month away! A day when we (hopefully) take a moment to stop and give thanks to Mother Earth for everything she has provided for all of us for the entirety of our lives. No matter what species, race, color, religion, gender, nationality, herd, pack, tribe, age, political affiliation, financial status, level of consciousness or state of health, she is nondenominational and nonjudgmental.

Only a mother could give that much unconditional love on a daily basis, ask for nothing in return and endure the daily abuses her spoiled, disrespectful and ungrateful children continue to spew on her.

To prepare, let’s remember that it is the Earth alone (not God) that provides us with the raw materials and resources we require and yet so arrogantly waste to live a beautiful existence on one of the most bio-diverse, absolutely gorgeous and unique places in the entire universe that we know of.

While we are in the midst of elections and arguments over who should take office in the midvalley, let us again be mindful that the original visitors to this pristine valley only visited here, never lived here permanently and left no trace of being here.

How many of us in this microcosm valley of our world actually have stopped for one second to ask Mother Earth what she can handle or what she needs for her and her animal populations to thrive and regenerate alongside humans? The common theme on our entire planet seems to be Alzheimer’s of our connection with Mother Earth.

One of the chief premises of the Native American way of living was to honor your mother and take only what you need so that the next seven generations would be able to enjoy the beauty of connected coexistence with all species that share this planet.

The Native Americans believed that life is a sacred hoop, not a straight line. We are on a race to some unknown technological finish line, and we must be careful to balance our advancements in technology with our emotional intelligence while listening to what Mother Earth is showing us about how we are causing the destruction of our planet. We may end up as the superior species of morons who were given everything and consumed it all away for profit’s sake, leaving a legacy of nothing but dirty water, dirty air and poisoned foods, children, humans and animals for the next seven generations, which will have to deal with our greed, lust and lack of instinctual awareness to take care of what takes care of you.

Please remember that when the inferior Animal Kingdom was in charge, Mother Earth was thriving and teeming with biodiversity of billions of species that we have now made extinct forever.

So to paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, kindly remember today and every day to ask not what Mother Earth can do for you but what you can do for Mother Earth.

Alecia Evans

Basalt