Welcome to Earth Day, 2011.
Below is a meditation I wrote nearly a dozen years ago about why a clean environment is necessary, not just nice to have.
We don't like to live in a home that resembles a junk yard. We certainly don't want our earth to be one either.
All of us seem to seek that place of order and peace.
That place is clean. Not just uncluttered, but clean.
You can smell the freshness, like a mountain stream weaving down the sloop, licking shiny smooth stones along the way, kissing the graceful ferns at it's side.
We aren't offended by the dirt in which the ferns anchor their roots, or the bugs buzzing around the vapor. It's all quite natural, orderly -- and yes, clean!
Maybe that's what clean is -- everything in its place. When books are scattered on the coffee table, the floor, and not in the bookcase, the house takes on an unclean look.
And that's why we environmentalists are so put off by air saturated with unnaturally high levels of dangerous chemicals; in themselves good and beneficial when respected and at their natural levels.
So while I love walking through a clean house, I so much more savor a clean environment outdoors, with life -- sustaining clean air, water, even fertile life-giving soil.
No money made can justify leaving a dirty environment in its tracks.