What does “dominion” mean anyway?
6:40 a.m.
Yesterday I had all sorts of brainchildren (that word doesn’t look right, although dictionary.com says it is correct--I would rather have said brainchilds) in the subjects-for-blogging department. Hubby and I went out to do jobs: he to mail off a package for a competition and pick up scores at the printshop, I to buy stuff at Costco. We had already completed the first two tasks and were headed up the hill when I remembered that we’d not brought the propane tank with us (it ran out the other day as I attempted to barbecue salmon steaks) and we had to return home for it.
We loaded up our shopping cart with all sorts of goodies, over $300 worth of goodies, in fact, which is pretty ironic when you consider that I had a list of four items, max. But among those things were those newfangled light bulbs and phosphate-free laundry detergent (I am already using phosphate-free fabric softener and dishwasher detergent). After we checked out I realized I had forgotten to buy my propane and had to run back to the cashier we had just left who, luckily, had just closed her register and was happy to oblige me.
Hubby has been reading a book called Our Hydr0gen Economy and has learned many rather frightening things about our use of fossil fuels and the collapse of past civilizations. They appear to be related, those two things. On the ride home we discussed how plastics, products of our nonrenewable petroleum resources, have become all pervasive. It was not that long ago that everything was made out of wood, wood, metal and glass. As a child I remember toys were made out of those materials, with fabric being wool or cotton or rayon or silk or linen, all biological products. When plastics first came on the scene commercially, they were cheap and considered “fake”. Now practically everything is made from plastic.
Although plastics are recyclable, at the beginning of their use the technology didn’t exist and so our landfills are full of garbage made out of petroleum products that we cannot hope to separate from other refuse and reuse. There was no foresight, no thought that if a new substance was going to be widely used, its waste management should be considered as well, and this reminded me of a Greek myth I read as a child.
Zeus gave the half-breed Titan Epimetheus (which means “hindsight”) the task of improving the members of the animal kingdom, and so he did that. He gave them sharp claws and teeth, thick fur coats, powerful legs, night vision, cunning and whatever else they needed in order to survive and be successful. However, when he got to mankind, he had nothing left because he hadn’t thought ahead. His brother Prometheus (whose name means “forethought”) stole fire from the gods which he presented to man as a compensation for Epimetheus’ oversight. For this good deed, Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle devoured his liver daily and was only freed when Hercules happened upon him during the execution of his famous twelve labours.
When Hubby and I were talking about the lack of foresight that led to non-biodegradable plastics clogging up landfills and that can’t be recycled, thus adding to the faster depletion of our oil reserves, I suddenly remembered this story and how much we resemble the Titan whose job it was to see about innovations. Unlike the ancient Greeks and other cultures and societies which recognize the basic stupidity and lack of perspective that most people have, instant gratification being the main impetus for new and improved products, the Western world is still working under the assumption that mankind has been given “dominion” over nature.
A farmer knows that you have to replenish the soil, that certain crops remove nutrients from it and others put them back. We cannot continue to exploit the natural world without returning something to it. Just as in another story I read to the kids when they were little about a magic glass cupboard which would give you anything you desired when you reached into it provided you put something back for everything you took out, and where greedy thieves kept pulling out bags of gold without returning anything and eventually smashed the cupboard and expired, we too will destroy our planet, foul our nests and make life unlivable here because we didn’t think ahead.
There’s a lesson here for all of us.
<~~~ * ~~~>
