Donkeys to Dust, Wells to Black Holes

The recent Blog Action Awareness Day in which Bloggers around the world were asked to post on a topic related to the environment got me thinking about where humanity is at in regards to its relationship to the environment. More often than not, it seems that we look first to the environment as a storehouse to meet our economic needs in order for us to fulfill our destiny of becoming the ultimate consumers. As long as we continue to climb this path to the top of the food chain, the rest of the chain will suffer.

Our view of the environment is not new nor is it one held only in the western world. A recent story in the October 16, 2007 Spirituality and Practice E-Newsletter retold an ancient Chinese story from the Tao as retold by Derek Lin in his book The Tao of Daily Life . The story tells about some Villagers who were going to construct a shrine to honor the emperor. The local governor had offered to reward the workers handsomely if they could complete the project on schedule. The location for the shrine contained a well that needed to be filled before the shrine could be built. The Villagers brought a donkey to the site to help them haul in sand and mud to fill the well. As work progressed, the donkey got too close to the well, lost his footing, and tumbled down into the open hole. In order to expedite the construction of the shrine, the Villagers gave up on their attempts to rescue the donkey, and instead opted to bury the donkey alive at the bottom of the well. When the disgruntled donkey realized his fate, he shook off the dirt and dust that was accumulating on his back, packed it down on the bottom of the well with his hoofs, and waited for the next shovel full of his ticket out of the well. After repeating the process for several hours, the Villager’s became curious about what had happened to their beast of burden. They looked down into the well, and were amazed to see the donkey ready to climb out of the now nearly filled hole. The newsletter clarifies for us that the donkey in this story reminds us about the importance of taking responsibility for our own predicaments. Another moral I take from the story is that even two millennium ago humans were viewing the natural world, the donkey in this case, as simply a resource to help them get what they wanted. When it no longer served their purpose, the donkey was abandoned; just like the old well. It also portrays another believe of ours that continues to get us in trouble; that nature can climb its way out of anything we throw at it.

Several newspapers in September of 2007 covered a modern day version of the donkey story These stories covered Amos the Donkey from Underwood Minnesota who also found himself at the bottom of a well. Amos had escaped through a hole in the fence around his pasture and wandered onto some nearby property. He walked across an old well, which had simply been covered with a sheet of particleboard. The flimsy covering collapsed under the weight of the donkey and the unfortunate Amos plummeted to the bottom of the well. The well owner found Amos trapped in the well and the local volunteer fire department was called in to help rescue the donkey. The rescuers diligently worked to enlarge the size of the well opening by removing the concrete blocks that lined the well. Through the enlarged opening, they were able to place a harness around the donkey and hoist him to safety. The owner of the donkey scolded the bruised and dusty donkey with the reminder “if you would have stayed home you wouldn’t be in this trouble.” A follow-up story pointed out that the volunteer fire department had received an award from the folks at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for rescuing the donkey. The modern Minnesotan volunteers undoubtedly deserved the PETA award, especially when compared to the actions of the ancient Chinese Villagers’.

Despite our more humane treatment of animals, when we go deeper into this modern day well story we can see that we continue to disrespect and misunderstand the natural world. The ancient Chinese treated the donkeys as just another resource to be used to better their own lives, while we continue to treat our groundwater in a similar manner. Humans have been using groundwater wells for thousands of years as a source of safe and reliable drinking water. This is made possible by the microorganisms, plants, soils, and rocks that make up the surface of our earth, which function as a natural water purification system. Unfortunately, many of us simply look at a well as an easy way to get water and once the well dries up or no longer meets our needs, we forget about it or perhaps if we are lucky someone throws some boards over it to keep us from falling in it. The conduit that allowed Amos to plummet to the bottom of the well also allows contaminants to bypass the purification system and pollute the groundwater. As long as we do not drink the water, it is not a problem, but as soon as someone finds pollutants in our drinking water, then we become concerned. Perhaps someone needs to scold the well owner and remind him that properly filling his unused well is good for all of us, not just donkeys.

Another newspaper story that appeared in papers on October 10, 2007 holds the key for humanity to develop a healthier view of our environment. This story covers a recent finding by astronomers that confirmed another story that has been around through the ages, namely that we, along with the rest of the cosmos, come from dust; space dust in this case. Astronomers confirmed the formation of space dust in the cosmic winds that emanate from black holes. They have known for sometime that stars and planets and other objects, us included, are made up of the dust spewed out from exploding stars; but where this dust came from before stars formed has remained a mystery. This reminder that all that exists in the cosmos originates from the same dust may help us to keep our prospective of where we fit in the grand scale of things. We are not the pinnacle of creation, but simply one of its infinite intricate parts. This is a stark contrast to our current view as the ultimate cosmic consumer. Embracing our dusty origins may be the ticket we need to climb out of the environmental hole we have dug ourselves into.