Comment on the Allegory - Repairing the Vessel

This is the second comment on the Allegory of the Three Travelers
The first comment is Coming of Age

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Sometimes I just want to take someone by the shoulders and shake them.

"Why can't you see?"

But, if you can't see you can't see . . . the shaking won't help.

The vessel that carries life through time is the living system on this planet.  The vessel is running down because of the way we humans produce the things we need.

The vessel is a complex pattern of interactions.  For reasons of expediency we want to simplify things.  And as we simplify things the life drains from the vessel.  It is sad to see something that could be so robust wasting away for lack of vision.  Its like watching a parent lose their vitality except that the wasting of the vessel is not inevitable.  The vessel begins to heal as individuals find new ways to interact.  New interactions increase complexity.

Why is it so hard to see that the vessel requires complexity to maintain vitality?

I have said this many times in many different ways to many different audiences.  The living system on this planet has a single operations and from the perspective of that operation all the wicked problems make sense.  Understanding how the living system works shows the way to healing nature and producing abundance.  Why is that so hard to see?

The single operation of the living system is to use solar energy to create organic molecules and cycle them through itself.  Simple right?  But it requires complexity to be vital.

The three travelers are fighting amongst themselves over the things they need from a living system that is severely weakened by the fighting.  It is a self reinforcing feed back loop.  The more we fight the less there is to go around.  The more we fight.

We humans simplified the way we produce things, weakening the living system on this planet, and now there is not enough to go around, and that causes the fighting.  A field of corn is an ecosystem simplified to a single species.  A concentrated animal feeding operation is an ecosystem simplified to a single species.  Resources are imported every year and used up generating waste streams.

Waste is a sign of inadequate complexity. 
   
The living system on this planet is every organism alive right now.  That includes every living human.  When the living system is able to cycle organic molecules through plant, animal, fungal, and bacterial processes those molecules, those things humans need to thrive, build up.  When we break that cycle those molecules dissipate and the things humans need to thrive become scarce.

It is not difficult to assist the living system in becoming more complex.  Every living thing has an unlimited capacity to reproduce.  Nature wants to be abundant.  If you could only see how productive a complex pattern of interactions could be, you would join me in urging your community to come together to find a place for all its residents. 

When we begin to open our eyes to this simple lesson about complexity we will be the Living System on this Planet becoming aware of itself.

A View of the Whole 

Part Four: Comment on the Allegory - Human Potential

Comments

  1. Enriched environment is key to health.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The whole depends on the health of the parts the parts depend on the health of the whole.

      Delete

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