One Humanity
I submit to you that humanity is one body.
The onset of the world pandemic, and the subsequent shutdown of our usual human activity, is making Nature’s point that we are perceived and acted upon as one body. We have all been placed at risk and as many have said, have been sent to our rooms to think about our behaviour towards the natural world.
The issue is that because we don’t see it that way, we are unaware of the butterfly effect where the flutter of wings in the southern hemisphere causes a tornado in the northern hemisphere. Connections are not always obvious, so we don’t link them to the initial event.
The media and entertainment industry has been working hard for decades to encourage and nurture the ‘me’ culture. We have been told that we deserve to buy expensive things. We deserve to indulge our every whim because we’ve earned it. Enough of working for others, it’s time to take care of ME. Like we didn’t already do that. We were being told that it was OK to be selfish. The beauty industry has been thriving; not that beauty is frivolous. Maybe the focus is a little skewed to one body type with large breasts. Needless to say the industry has been thriving.
“The global beauty industry is worth about $532 billion.[1] American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reveals that Americans spent more than $16.5 billion on cosmetic plastic surgery and minimally invasive procedures.” [2]
We pay lip service to environmental concerns. We play our part in diminishing pollution by participating in recycling simply because it is easier than reducing, re-using or repairing. We rinse and separate the bottles from the tins and the plastics.They in turn get collected, trucked, sorted and bundled before being sent on their way to be buried or burned.
“People start pollution. People can stop it”, was the tagline in the late 1960’s. The companies behind the campaign successfully framed waste as a problem for consumers rather than one for the companies that manufactured the items being wasted… and thus framed recycling as something that taxpayers should pay for.” [3]
It is now more expensive to deal with recycled items. No one really wants all the plastics. Most of the wasted plastic is coming from offices, institutions or industries.Recently some of the recycled goods being shipped overseas are coming back to us because foreign countries don’t want them either.
We pride ourselves in driving a fuel efficient vehicle, and then fly to a vacation destination. One plane’s emissions equals that of hundreds of cars. When presented with this fact our response will typically be that the plane was going there anyway, or that travel is a right you are unwilling to sacrifice.The breaking of our connection in society is epitomized by our relentless judgement of each other.
Do you own a car and what kind?
Are you a renter or owner?
Did you get a degree?
Do you cook from scratch or buy ready made?
Are you religious or a non believer?
Holistic medicine. The FreeDictionary defines it as:
“A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; “theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses”; “true in fact and theory”
Caroline Myss in her book Anatomy of the Spirit explains that, according to energy medicine, your biography becomes your biology.
“Every thought you have had has traveled through your biological system and activated a physiological response. Some thoughts are like depth charges, causing a reaction throughout the body. A fear, for instance, activates every system of your body: your stomach tightens, your heart rate increases, and you may break into a sweat. A loving thought can relax your entire body. Some thoughts are more subtle, and still others are unconscious…Yet each thought…does generate a physiological response.”[4]
Imagine every 7 billion one of us occupying some part of one body. Altruists and the lonely might occupy the heart. The intellectuals and skeptics would occupy the brain. The angry would occupy the spleen and the adrenal glands. The sensitive ones might occupy the spinal cord. The heavy consumers might be cancer cells. The starving would occupy the intestines. I could go on assigning people to many other parts of the body, and we could have a bit of fun here, but you get the idea.
When dealing with human ailments, we react to those that call attention to themselves. A failing heart will immediately shut you down, whereas you will adapt to life with an allergy or asthma. If you are hungry, you will eat.
Consider the one body that represents humanity.
We ignore the starving when we could easily feed them. We tolerate wars because they aren’t happening in our own country and the arms industry corporations are making money. We allow pollution because it is time consuming and deemed too expensive to do otherwise. We clear cut our forests for grazing or land development, in order to make money.
The one body of humanity has stopped functioning properly. Depression and loneliness are at an all time high. Social systems: family, politics, economics, religion, are all failing. We have been aware of these issues but we have been tolerating them all, as we would an arthritic hip or skin condition.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Through the global impact of the Coronavirus, Nature is treating us as one body. It has infected enough of us to force us into self isolation and social distancing. We are being shown the importance of proper health care, the need for an ongoing food chain and shelter. All service occupations are deemed as necessary, in fact, essential for our survival. Yet their lack of importance to us, prior to the crisis, is reflected in their pay.
We are being shown that we need to work together in resolving the issues that plague humanity. Countries who have seen success in dealing with prisoners, addicts or those with mental disorders should share their methodologies. Other countries would adopt them. The humane treatment of people should be the most important consideration; not the cost
Nature is showing us that what we do, we are really doing as a collective. We’re only just starting to understand the connections. Our adoption of more interconnected relations and interactions that benefit humanity will not happen quickly or easily, but our survival depends on that shift in consciousness.
[1] https://loudcloudhealth.com/beauty-industry-statistics/