Wellness Wednesday - If you only had 18 days to live...

I've always loved the song, Salt Water, by Julian Lennon. I was a teenager when it was released and I was drawn to it because I have always been drawn to songs that tugged on my emotions. I didn't really think too hard about the meaning behind the words at the time. There are other things to worry about when you're a teenager;)

I usually just let my iTunes cycle through songs at random when I'm sitting here. Yesterday, it suddenly started playing and I hadn't listened to it for years so it drew me in immediately. I stopped what I was doing and, this time, I REALLY listened to the lyrics. It dawned on me just how important they actually were. This song was written in 1991. It's now 2014 and all I can think of is how much time I wasted worrying about the most ridiculous things when, in reality, I should have been worrying about something far bigger, just as the song says.

Another trip down memory lane involved us watching Armageddon on Sunday. GLM hadn't seen it yet. I had but I had forgotten the storyline. Just like the song, I think it was pretty relevant that I ended up watching it again, now. When I was younger, it was terrifying, but it was just a movie and I forgot all about it. I was far too focused on my date;) Watching it as a grown woman, it struck a chord.

It got me to thinking, what would the world do if it was suddenly faced with an abrupt ending? What would you do if you knew you only had 18 days left of life? If you knew that, after 18 days, your life, your family's lives, the lives of your friends and every other person in the world was going to simply cease to be.

It's morbid, I know. But reality often is. No-one wants to think about the fact that we are all living on a giant, spinning rock, moving through an endless solar system filled with all sorts of flying debris that could hit us at any time. The fact is that it HAS happened. 65 million years ago, a 10 kilometre asteroid struck the earth causing a global firestorm, then a cold snap and finally a global warming and that was the end of the dinosaurs. There are many other incidences but that one is definitely the most well known.

There IS a point to all this;) My point is that we get so caught up in our lives and the little things that make us human: a fight with a sibling, traffic, paying bills, losing weight, what's for dinner. All of that stuff makes it easy for us to forget just how small we are, and how insignificant we actually are in the whole scheme of things.

If we were told an asteroid or a comet was going to be hitting earth in a few days, it would certainly be something we could all comprehend. It's something tangible and inevitable. It would be unbelievably scary to face, not only your own mortality, but that of the entire human race but we wouldn't question it because it's pretty easy to prove these days with the technology we have.

But, tell a person that we are on a one-way trip to the end of the human race BECAUSE of the human race causing things like climate change and global warming and everyone scoffs. What is that all about? Is it so much harder to comprehend because it's not in our immediate sphere of understanding and experience? Green Peace has been trying for years to slow down the mass destruction of all the earth's natural resources and yet the destruction is as massive as it ever was. It's been about as effective as a 5 year old trying to stop the Gautrain with one hand. 

Have we gotten so big for our boots that we think we're indestructible? Or have we just gotten so complacent that we've forgotten how to care? Or maybe it's that it isn't going to affect us so we figure there's no point in getting worked up about it. Let's focus on that last point for a bit because it IS affecting us and you should be aware of it. Haven't you noticed how the weather has changed over the last few decades? Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods like we've never seen before. These things don't just happen out of the blue. There has to be a catalyst.

We sit at home and we watch on TV and we say, "Wow, that's just terrible. The people in charge really need to do something." Really? What are they going to do? They're doing just what they've always done which is worry about their own pockets and how it will affect them. How are they going to stop natural disasters anyway? Most of them are still ignoring global warming because it doesn't make them any money to try and find alternative options and it's not affecting them directly.

It IS affecting us and it started decades ago. We are slap bang in the middle of the earth responding to the way we are abusing it. That means it WILL continue to get worse in your lifetime but here's who it will REALLY affect: your children and your grandchildren, and THEIR children and grandchildren.

That should bother you. I don't even have kids yet and it bothers ME. I think of my nieces and nephews and the world we are going to be leaving them with and it terrifies me.

Here's what I know. It's not going to start with the people in charge. It has to start with US. If every person made a decision to do something positive for the earth, things would change. If everyone just stepped outside their little lives for a bit and focused on the bigger picture, they'd see in a heartbeat what the powers-that-be are refusing to acknowledge. WE are the ones with the power to effect change and we needed to start yesterday.

There are bigger problems than a difference in religion, sexuality or race. Life is about more than the oscar nominations, the latest beauty products and the latest fashions. Go back to that question of what you would do if you knew the human race was going to cease to be in 18 days. None of those issues would matter anymore. NONE of them. It would become about survival. The world would completely unite in their efforts to find a way to survive, right? And I bet Matthew McConaughey's oscar nomination would be the furtherest thing from your mind.

So why can't we unite in this now? Why is it so hard to comprehend that we ARE, in fact, running out of time. It may not be something as tangible as an asteroid, but it DOES exist and it's just as real.

If you're not sure about what you can do, I'll give you some pointers and I go into much more detail here:

• Eat closer to home
• Eat organic and free range
• Grow your own food
• Start a compost heap
• Get rid of your petrol lawn mower
• Use biodegradable body care
• Use biodegradable household products
• Reduce pesticides in your area
• Buy stuff that uses less packaging, or NO packaging
• Reduce, re-use and recycle
• Save water
• Save electricity

I have blogged about this before but I don't think it can be said enough so I guess I'll just keep saying it because someone, somewhere is going to sit up and take notice and that's the whole point of blogging. Don't say that you're just one person and how can it possibly make a difference. If I had that attitude I'd have stopped ages ago. The problem is, I'm AWARE now. How can I NOT do whatever I can knowing what I know? How can anyone? The internet has the power to create a star in minutes, why can't we use it to save the world? Why can't something like that go viral? Something that is so important it is literally a matter of life and death?

I live in hope.

Meanwhile, here is the song I mentioned in the beginning, complete with lyrics. Have a listen and a read. I hope it strikes the same chord with you.