I used to be a third grader who wrote letters to her representatives in Washington D.C. I started doing this when I read about Sharpie the baby sperm whale in Mrs. Foster's 3rd grade class at Longfellow Elementary. I was an idealist and activist-in-training.
Now I'm a grandmother on my way back to believing that I can make a difference by talking about what matters to me and participating in our democracy. In the past, I made excuses for not being active on behalf of our planet and the beings that co-exist here: I'm too busy; it's not my job; I do enough by ___; I think it will be okay (I hope it will be okay)...
One day recently I woke up and realized that there's really no time like NOW to get engaged in being an active steward of the earth. I couldn't bear the regret that I'd let so many years go by and watched a decline so unbelievably wasteful and destructive it seems almost unbearable to look at and really see--to understand what is needed and what may be lost because I wasn't paying attention--because I thought that "someday" there would be time.
Today, I wrote to my representative Rick Larsen about some more whales. This past week I read an article (Japan's whale hunt symbol of its desperation) in the Honolulu Advertiser, a commentary by Peter Heller:
"But perhaps the real reasons the Japanese continue to whale have less to do with culture and more to do with fears about the imminent collapse of a major food source. Today's oceans are in great peril. We have lost 90 percent of the pelagic predator fish stocks -- marlin, tuna, swordfish, great sharks --that existed in 1950. Half the world's reefs are dead or dying. A report published a year ago in Science warned that if the current trends of overfishing continue, every fishery will collapse by 2048." (P. A18, Wednesday, December 5.)
If you're like me, this passage, in particular, caused me to tear up with a great sadness in my heart. How could it be that just yesterday in my memory I was a third grader sure that if I wrote to Senators Magnuson and Jackson and President Eisenhower, they would listen and turn it all around for the sperm whale and other great mammals of the ocean? How could it be that that did not happen--or enough did not happen to make a difference?
I'm not a third grader any more, but my middle grandson is. When the world's fisheries collapse, I probably won't be around to see his tears. He will be 48 years old trying to teach his children how to live in a world without a rich and vital part of the world that has been disappearing for half a century. I can't imagine it. Thankfully, along with the sadness this picture brings up for me is an arising energy, strength and clear intention:
This is not happening on my watch with me standing by as an "innocent" bystander wishing and hoping someone else will use their power to save my world. I want to leave a legacy of powerful action with intention for my grandchildren to build upon as a foundation for their lives.
I know that some of you feel this way. What are you doing and what can I learn from you to pass along to my grands?
Joy in learning,
Kate
Mount Vernon, Washington
To read more about:
1. Japan's whale hunt 2007 -- http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1686486,00.html
2. Action needed "at home" -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6642931.stm
