Survival Will Not Be Enough

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             Each day passes, most, very much like the one before it. One finds oneself repeating familiar motions just because they’re familiar, putting the toothbrush back into its holder the same way, doing things in a certain order that defies variation. I’m sure it’s more than just efficiency, it’s habit. I will do things this way because it’s the way I do them.
            When I eventually complete all of my usual morning tasks and head out for the daily commute, I’m well-aware of what I will soon face. Thousands of other drivers with their own individual habits and objectives are also going somewhere. Some are on vacation, others are already on the clock, moving a commercial load from point to point, and many more are doing the same as I am, going to work. We all have our own ways of doing that, too.
            And I wonder, what level of importance does anyone else place on how they do it? Does anyone else prefer an easy, pleasant drive? It surely doesn’t look that way. It’s a daily early-morning expression of impatience, aggression and selfishness. Yes ma’am I can see that you’re late. And excuse me, sir, I realize that reaching your destination is ever so much more important than my reaching mine. Pardon me for being here. I’m sorry, am I too slow? Ten miles over the speed limit isn’t enough to keep you off of my back bumper? Here, let me signal and pull off. There you go. Now, was that gesture really necessary? Oh I see, it took too long for me to get out of your way! I’ll do it more quickly tomorrow. Of course, that won’t suit your ass either.
             I tell myself as I wait for the opportunity to re-enter traffic, it was probably always this way. When I was a child my dad was usually driving, and then it was his job to deal with it. I was just a passenger. But I know that’s not true. Even in my own lifetime I’ve seen a change, and it’s worsened. I’ve reasoned, maybe it’s just because I’m older, and tiring of it.
            But without mentioning types or brands, take a look out there. There are many more high-end, extremely expensive vehicles on the road. There aren’t fewer high-speed drivers at the elevated fuel prices of today, there are more. The majority of drivers are also using phones. Only a very few are careful enough to pull off to use them.
            It’s a shockingly accurate reflection of changes everywhere, none of them good. It seems to me, very few people give a rats-ass whether the glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising, or that drinking water is being sold the way milk once was, while many don’t even have milk. That the cycle of wildlife worldwide is on a downward spiral, that government, business and financial institutions are becoming indistinguishable. That the utilities run the utility control entities, that graft and money make the rules.
            I’m sure it has nothing to do with the permanent concrete barriers between lanes that prevent migration of wild animals, as their bodies collect along them on the highway. What do we care? Cleaning them up creates jobs. Or with the cops lined up along the road to catch speeders in road-construction areas that haven’t been active for a week. Hey, let’s all just be assholes. That way we can die sooner and make room for the children.
           Don’t even get me started on the children. There’s no way you’d finish this short piece. It does have a bottom line, coming right up.
           I’d like to suggest that we all start paying attention. Martyrdom only serves a purpose if somebody cares. And there are some things, if we’re looking, that deserve a closer look. It all has to begin somewhere. And where will that be?
           Consider, I might have written a hundred more pages about the changes that are needed, to prevent very real things that go on right where you live. Everywhere, it’s increasing government surveillance. And yet, in some places it’s still slavery. Here and elsewhere, it’s actual human trafficking, including of children, and regrettably, not for parenting. Swindle and theft. Terrorism. Drug cartels. Gang warfare, drive-by shootings, rape, muggings, murder. The list could go on and on. And none of those things even touch what humanity is doing to the planet on which we depend for our very existence. As waterways open where the glaciers once were, corporations and governments team up to claim them.
           As I age, I’ve realized there’s something more important to me than even companionship or love. I wonder if there exists anywhere, any man or woman who feels the same?
           It will not be enough for humanity to survive.
           To be worth the effort, we need to begin to deserve it.






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