Extinction

I'm sure it is the time of year as we are now into the season of quieting down and reflection, and I'm sure it is my exhaustion from my low energy levels combined with my increased schedule since the school year does not model Mother Nature, and probably it is also the blasted elections, but I've been pondering a lot lately about the nature of the universe, for lack of a better term.  What is the point of life?  We are born of the earth and return to the earth and what about the time in between.  I'm sure my spider is not pondering on the nature of her spinning and why she makes webs, but then I've always been one to think about existential type questions.  Soon I'll do a post on personality types as I realize that it isn't just the spider who doesn't ask existential questions--most people don't either.


Anyway, back to the topic.  It is the nature of the universe to change.  Life is constantly in a state of transition, as the changing seasons remind us.  And extinction is part of that process, whether it is the extinction of a life, a species, or I guess even a planet.  But why is ours the only species which seems absolutely determined not only to cause its own extinction, but the extinction of everything else on the planet and indeed the planet itself?  Other species have become extinct during the evolution of our planet and the life on it.  Before there were humans, the dinosaurs, for instance, became extinct for reasons which are still unclear or debated at least, but other life survived and evolved.  Homo sapiens seem to be the only known species which thinks it has a right (and many would say a "god-given" right) to rape, pillage, and plunder this planet, destroying any who might get in its way, taking whatever it wants with total disregard for any other life form, since obviously our species is the most intelligent, the most deserving, etc.


Now, of course, not all of us believe this.  But it is becoming more and more apparent that the majority attitude, especially of the first world nations, has in all likelihood already doomed this planet.  Personally, I am trying to live a gentler life, a more respectful life, and to "be the change that I want to see," but at least in my current frame of mind, I'm wondering if it isn't all too little too late.  But there is an entire universe, and the individual doesn't really exist as we are all part of the cosmos, the larger picture, and maybe that is true even of our species and our planet.  So I shall muddle onwards, trying to stay present and mindful, and meanwhile, it is time to give my dog Chauncey his weekly bath in my outside shower in the rain, and so starts another day.