The End of Eden

A RUSTIC's RECOLLECTIONS,
A CHALLENGE TO CHANGE.

WELCOMING AN OLD MAN FROM ENGLAND.

It seems like many years ago, in fact it was only twenty or so, when in a small farmhouse near Westmoreland, Ks. my wife and I watched a PBS special mystery "Edge of Darkness".

The feature length series, lasting over three weekends and six hours, was an import from England depicting a secret struggle among a radioactive stew of nuclear weapon scientists, Scotland Yard cops and some politically activist environmental children.

The movie was the first time I had ever heard of the term "Gaia" to describe planet Earth as a living organism.

At that time I had attended many protests; defending Leonard Peltier in Leavenworth's federal prison (he is now being held in Springfield, Mo.), opposing apartheid in South Africa (before Nelson Mandela was released) and a nationally mobilized demonstration at a large CFC factory near Wichita, Ks. (which did in fact result in government regulations against CFC's in aerosols then depleting the ozone) among many others.

A life of learning requires an intellectual appetite for a wide feast of experiences based on experiments in working theories on the ground. I still consider the philosophical tool of the dialectic as the most indispensible of tools for gaining a critical understanding and changing the world we survive within.

Studying contradictions solve most of the handy mysteries in life.

The orphaned sister of the philosopical "dialectical" linked in the last few centuries to all the toilers of humankind, "materialist" means less and less to me as I age. Toilers of all countries seem more fond today of the pursuit of luxury, not seeing to the necessities of their fellows.

That PBS series of "Mystery" was taped on a now defunct VHS recorder and has been watched many times since, passed around among friends, returned and stretched, scratched and static filled - it rests in three plastic boxes under my current television set, but in another farm house in Northeast Kansas.

The old man who coined the word "Gaia" is coming to the United States.

The old man at 88 years of age, who still sails into life's harbor with humor and humility, who coined the term "Gaia" will no doubt be listened to, describing again his theories about this planet as a living organism in rebellion against our ravages. The theories will be conveniently overlooked by billions - and neglected, scorned and mocked derisively by the soon extinct political creatures currently leading us.

If he is correct in his scientific findings from his cottage lab in the backyard and I believe he nearer the truth than any among us, we will be dragged to it by reality in the not-too-distant future. Should you or I care, we're mostly dead in thirty or forty years, but what of those eyes you stare into everyday, the eyes of the younger people around you?

Shall I allow that truth to drag my most familiar child, and yours too, to a most ignominous future? Would you if you knew?

The old man scientist has scared the shit out of his fellow scientists lately.

Because of what they are discovering across the planet each day.

Mainly, also because his scientific use of "dialectics" is starting to interfere with so many "materialists" hellbent on fleeting luxury and wealth.

His theory seems to be the biggest "inconvenient truth" to grasp among the scientists and every day people today.

And he never ran for president.

Read it and do not weep, question his findings if you must - but challenge yourself with an open mind and prepare to stare into the "Edge of Darkness."

Go to: The End of Eden