Tangible vs. Transcendent

The thing I have been struggling with most is the fact that every time I try to keep my thoughts grounded in order to think concretely about nature, I always end up on that intangible realm and am left feeling like I just can't DO anything about it. I hate that feeling! I set out to read the next few chapters of Desert Solitaire this morning and was so intent on discovering the meaning behind the "Desert" and thinking about Ed Abbey's point for writing this book to begin with, yet every time I examined my thoughts, I realized that they drifted toward that ephemeral realm of the "I'm just human, what possibly could I do - I don't think I could do anything that would matter."

But I think that just might be it: the idea that we ARE human and we live and breathe in the natural world. This world is as much a part of us as we are part of it. (We're all made from dust, our bodies will decay and fertilize the earth, etc.) How am I doing at staying realistic so far? (Ok don't answer that...)Obviously the point is that we must do something, the question is WHAT.

I got to thinking this morning that maybe the desert, just as it is dry and empty and desolate and hot and arid - as Tien mentioned - is symbolic (here we go ;) of the state of mind that each of us find ourselves in in relation to the earth. Seriously: we keep finding ourselves concerned with this question of "what can we do?" "we don't know how." Well, how did Abbey look at the desert? He got right up in its face and lived with it, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much so (think when he messed up the ant pile just because he didn't "particularly care for ants.") So I think maybe one of the ways in which we can address the problem with which we are faced - what do we do? - is to just get right up in its face and LIVE. Meet and see each thing for what it is, as you see it (Thanks Amelie, loved reading your post; I've often thought the same thing about perception) and make the concrete decision to make whatever small changes you can make that are within your power to make. This way, we won't feel quite so overwhelmed, all at once anyway.

So what are some small changes we can make? There are the obvious, such as parents reverting to cloth diapering, growing your own food, being less wasteful, etc. What about turning off the lights in every room that you are not using? Saves energy. What about turning off the water during the time your toothbrush is in your mouth? You might do this already, but I don't. Would save water. And believe it or not, speaking of water, your diswasher uses less water than hand-washing does. BUT, your diswasher also uses energy. So you see, like Abbey, we may not always be successful either. But we can try. And as they say, its the "thought that counts" (And the subsequent effort that counts, too).