Becoming an active ecosystem member - Beyond the egosystem

In the face of a depressing report on the state of our climate emergency, and even more depressing response from our Prime Minister, and the even more depressing knowledge that you aren't even remotely surprised by any of it... the question that I have been obsessed with for the past 2 years seems even more relevant. 

That question is: how do we live new stories into being? 

I am most particularly interested in how we can live new stories into being, while still existing inside old stories.

What does this mean? You might well ask. 

Well, I believe that the issue we have is that the culture that I grew up in, "western" culture if you will, perceives ourselves, in the world in a way that is not concerned with our responsibilities to that world. I think that the meanings we make about the world around us and our place in it, the "truths" we hold, the assumptions we make... are the problem. We have forgotten that we are members of ecosystems. 

Furthermore, I don't believe technology is going to save us. It's not that I have a problem with technology, it's rather than I think the way our culture perceives technology is the problem.

We keep trying to use technology to avoid responsibility to our ecosystems, to find some kind of "quick fix." Our culture is obsessed with quick fixes.

And we do need to fix something. We need to fix our perspective on ourselves and our place in this world. We are not the heroes here, we cannot escape our responsibility to the ecosystems we live in. We cannot technology our way out of being ecosystem members. And here's why: it's non-resilient. Which is exactly why ecosystems survive mass extinction events, not in their entirety, but through adaptation, they are resilient.

Technology is a non resilient response to a problem, not because it is bad, but because it provides one way for the problem to be solved and if that stops working (if\, for example we run out of the resources needed to produce that technology, or if an event occurred that made all of that technology not work anymore...) there aren't back up plans.

We need to stop making technology the silver bullet to solve our problems, because it is exactly this way of thinking - of trying to solve our problems without actually taking responsibility for them-  that is the problem. We need to change our minds, before we can start inventing the technology that can support, heal and nourish our ecosystems. 

We are members of ecosystems, but our culture treats ecosystems like it treats everything else, as a resource to be mined. We are little concerned with our role as ecosystem members to give back to ecosystems.

Ecosystems thrive on the endlessly circling energy, that feeds each new part of the system. Human beings have known and understood how to be essential parts of ecosystems before. Human beings know and understand this now. Many first nations cultures do no perceive any difference between themselves and the land. This is an ecosystem consciousness. An ecosystem is a gift economy. And our culture commodified it. And now, we are in serious debt to our ecosystems. We have been giving back rubbish, poisons and taking more and more of the parts of ecosystems away for many, many years. We have colonised new places and mined those ecosystems too. We have called this "progress" - but this kind of progress has a finite time frame. It lasts for as long as the ecosystems that we mine can continue to survive as crippled, incomplete ecosystems. We rely on these ecosystems for food, water, air... if we poison the ecosystems we rely upon... we poison ourselves.

And so, the question becomes... how can we tell a new story about our place in the world? Firstly, regardless of where and how we live, we must realise that we are ecosystem members. That we survive because of ecosystems, ecosystems of people, of soil, of trees, animals and oceans and land. These things are in our blood, they are in our cells, we are made from them and they are made from us.

And then... the time for guilt is over. Guilt causes inaction and it centres the guilty again, and we need to de-centre ourselves, we are part of  the interconnected web of life, not the beneficiaries of it. It is time for reciprocity. Our opportunity to live with the world as a gift begins. Our opportunity to learn how to use the gifts human beings have to offer to help the ecosystems we are connected to thrive. Imagine the lives, health and feelings of a human being in a thriving ecosystem. 

Many of you who know me personally may have heard my opinions on the concept of "self sufficiency." This idea, which appears to be very different to the consumerist, extractive culture we live in... actually shares many similarities with that way of thinking. It is a very colonial, egocentric system. It centres humans. Because the human, who is being "self sufficient" is actually not self sufficient, they are a member of an ecosystem, which they are feeding and clothing themselves from, there are many, many other beings involved in that ecosystem of the "self sufficient" person's garden or farm.

I also have a problem with this concept because it is completely non-resilient. If the the person aiming to be self-sufficient is injured or sick, there is no back up, even if it is a family, one person out of action makes the system very hard to maintain long term. They simply cannot do the tasks necessary to provide for their needs. I think this is particularly relevant not because it's sad that someone who hoped to provide for all their food needs themselves can't, but rather because they are unable to adequately care for the other members of the ecosystem they constructed to feed themselves. This to me is unacceptable. 

The perspective also is problematic because once again, the perspective focuses on an ecosystem (usually one the human has partially constructed) as something to mine to meet human needs. While the human is providing for the other members of the ecosystem's needs, those members are perceived as being there to feed humans, the human remains the centre and the perceived purpose of those ecosystem members.

We can choose to become better community members, to share our surplus and care for one another, even if we don't agree. Our communities are a kind of ecosystem. We can choose to give back to the soil, to our waterways, to our forests that nourish us day after day. We can say thank you. We can give back. The gift of the human being is very special. We are the only members of ecosystems that can consciously direct our assistance to any aspect of an ecosystem, helping build fungal, bacterial, plant, animal, water health. We can adjust our behaviour and give out differing levels of service to aspects of ecosystems based on our observations of differing needs, of fluctuations of changes. Human beings are the only ecosystem members who can give back to every single aspect of an ecosystem and moderate how and when we serve these members, based on our ability to observe and interact.

So... what gifts will you be sharing with your ecosystems today?