Friday, September 04, 2009

What would Mothra do?

While perusing a list of extinct creatures, I came across something called the “Confused Moth,” a now-vanished winged insect once native to Hawaii. This unusual moniker caught my attention because most moths I’ve ever encountered appeared (to my untrained eye, at least) to qualify as “confused” as they fluttered about the nearest artificial light source.

Uh-oh...I think I feel a metaphor coming on.

Let’s imagine the source of the earth’s ills represented as the Moon and visualize the rabble-rousers among us as moths—confused moths, if you must. Agitated and dedicated, these activists are giving it all they’ve got: flapping like mad around a dim bare 40-watt light bulb in a Sunoco gas station bathroom on a New York Thruway rest stop...while just outside the window, an endangered coyote howls at the real deal shining brightly from 290,000 miles above.

As Bruce Lee said about the proverbial finger that points to the Moon: “Don’t concentrate on the finger or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory.”

Every change we make is a tiny step - recycling, shorter showers, bringing our own bag to the store, etc. - but we can’t let such efforts begin to mimic the confused fluttering of misguided moths around a bulb (even if it is a CFL). Let’s never lose sight of the big picture: What we call civilization has contributed mightily to the poisoning of our eco-system. Therefore, the changes we create must grow rapidly and exponentially until we once again live in harmony - not conflict - with the natural world.

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Always wear a bike helmet

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(More cartoons here)

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Vacation photo of the day:


Yes, they carried at least one of my books at the famous Powell’s Bookstore

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Deep poem


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Posted on 09/04 at 05:51 AM
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