A bang or a whimper?

T.S. Eliot lamented in his poem, "The Hollow Men", 

"This is the way the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper."

Perhaps, if he was alive today Eliot may change his mind and say that the world as we know it may end both ways. Indeed with nature's cataclysmic bangs and shakes of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, cyclones and tornados, as well as vast mountains of ice melting and raising the levels of the oceans on both ends of our blue green world, our small concerns seem pithy. Parts of our home planet experience devastating flooding, elsewhere years of drought.

As a simpering, whining species fuelled by an us vs them attitude we wreak havoc on our natural resources and the lives of others and deny that it is happening.  The rich behave both wastefully and at the same time believe they don't have enough as they get bigger and wealthier on the backs of others. The middle class and the poor, suffer and struggle for mere survival as slaves to a greedy marketplace, be it for electronics, fashion or sex. We are all sold a bill of goods that states more stuff will make us happier. In our hearts, we know it's not true. We've lost the ability to listen and see what is so even though it is right before our very eyes.

We complain, "no fair"; we are adamant that it's "not my fault", we point our fingers at others' beliefs, religious, social, sexual preferences and blame them for contaminating "my" belief system. We ludicrously believe that the colour of someone's skin somehow makes them less than and they should be treated inhumanely. In some places, with less respect and care then we would give our cherished pets. It doesn't stop there, elsewhere, species that are not humans are treated as if they too were a belonging to be used, abused and discarded at our own whims. Our patriarchal, mechanistic view of the world continues to devalue women and children as possessions. We treat the temple of the body as a garbage dump and neglect to nourish the mind and soul.

In all these years on this beautiful planet with all we need for everyone to live a quality and fulfilling life we squander, destroy and bicker. Nature is the great leveller, the catastrophes of the world are a
call for compassion and a dropping of our differences in support of a way we can be there for one another; to witness the loss and suffering of others and to offer a hand to those whose survival is hinged on the kindness and goodness of us all. It is a call to stop dumping our garbage, to stop destroying and wasting our natural resources, including the disregard for countless species.

Is it too late? Will we wake up and realize that our lives have always depended on the health of our Mother. Or will this chain of cataclysmic events simply burp us off Mother Earth so she can begin the next cycle without the behaviour of us human parasites.