Rape of Mother Earth
Mankind’s brutal and irreversible assault
I was sleepless last night. Sitting on a balcony at 2AM. Pitch dark. Light rain. Thunder in the distance. Sounds of soft waves of the Andaman Sea. All I could see was some lights off of other hotel balconies, and ships docked in the distance.
I sat there thinking what it would have been like to have lived in a world when there were only 1 billion people. Over reproduction is one of my worst complaints from humanity. Had we left nature to run her own course, she would have been much kinder to us. Instead we raped and pillaged her resources for our personal pleasure. We reproduced in the name of religion, culture, and mostly out of sheer boredom.
We chase wealth, property, legacy. In our minds we are becoming eternal by leaving behind marks. What we fail to see, is that nature can wipe all our marks in one instant.
Shortly before my solitary introspection on the balcony last night, there had been news of yet another earthquake, and a small tsunami in Japan. My mind wandered to the fact that I was sitting on the very island, and almost the spot where recent history’s worst tsunami disaster struck less than a decade ago [Video of Phuket tsunami] [Images of Phuket tsunami]. As I read tweets of a New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi updating on the tsunami status, I realised how vulnerable my own existence was. I could be swept away by a monster wave, any moment, and all my wealth, property, “legacies”, will be reduced to naught.
I have always envied musicians, painters, poets, and all those who leave their mark in history. Be it cave dwellers millions of year ago, who drew in stone, or Michelangelo’s timeless Vatican Ceiling. Be it ancient Greek music, John Lennon’s Imagine, 0r Benny Benassi’s “I love my sex”. They have all left more lasting marks on history then billions who have defaced Earth beyond repair, and maybe to the point of her destruction.
Just then on http://zite.com I saw that Medium was finally open for everyone. And I realised, the only legacy I can leave behind is maybe my thoughts. Not wise. Not profound. Just my human thoughts. Maybe I can make another think like myself. Maybe I can find another who thinks like me.
The image used here is a fluke shot. Taken with a Samsung S4, I accidentally caught the scene just when lightning illuminated it all for an instant [View on Instagram].
