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Remember that Sting song, “Carbon-14”? I guess it’s not called that. I’m reminded of that song every time I see the name of our plague. “We Work The Black Seam“. It’s a song about the abject evil and thoughtlessness of humanity with regard to the wellbeing of Earth and life. There is no undoing the damage humans have perpetrated upon the land, water, air, flora and fauna, let alone our own existence. There is no other planet to inhabit.

“One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together”

Lyrics by Gordon Sumner a/k/a Sting

This is how we’ve also dealt with COVID-19. Buried our heads in a great big hole. Just typing that reminds me of the Holocaust footage I saw as a too-young, Jewish child. Why so dark, and graphic? Our refusal as a species to consider lives and nature before money and greed results in death. Mass murder.

Hopefully, once we’ve destroyed everything and enough humans have perished, those remaining will consider lessons that our “civilization” repeatedly ignores. People call me pessimistic. Only my deep belief in how much potential there is for wonder and beauty and vitality sustains me. Even when only a tiny spark, nearly extinguished, that faith exists. I’d assert that in the face of reality, that’s unbridled optimism.

Cheers.