Nature is showing me as I come to work today how
things actually are in one small sphere, reminding me
how little we humans know, and how little we
appreciate harmony, or even see it.
And so, reading the newspaper that evening, I note
that the full consequences of logging the rain forests
covering the high ground in the South Philippines
were not apparent until the typhoon of late 1991
struck, when the denuded earth, no longer able to
hold water, let it rush unchecked to the lowlands at
four times the usual volume and drowned thousands
of poor inhabitants of the region. As the popular
bumper sticker says, "Shit happens." The trouble is,
too often we are unwilling see our role in it. There are
definite risks to disdaining the harmony of things.
Nature's harmony is around us and within us at all
times. Perceiving it is an occasion for great
happiness; but it is often only appreciated in
retrospect or in its absence. If all is going well in the
body, it tends to go unnoticed. Your lack of a
headache is not front-page news for your cerebral
cortex. Abilities such as walking, seeing, thinking, and
peeing take care of themselves, and so blend into the
landscape of automaticity and unawareness. Only
pain or fear or loss wake us and bring things into
focus. But by then the harmony is harder to see, and
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