What If…on a hot Mid-September day, 2017, in (way) northern Mn.

It’s pretty remarkable what’s going on with the Earth right now. It’s not new, really: We’ve always had earthquakes and volcanoes, which has always scared the shit out of me. I mean, c’mon. The Earth trembling and shaking. Buildings falling down. And us humans got nothing to say about it. Certainly can’t deny it. And if spouting fire and hellish lava from mountain tops is not some kind of warning, what the hell is?

And we’ve always had wild fires, droughts, storms, flooding, homes sliding off into the mud, but, really, doesn’t it seem a little excessive of late? The southwest is drying up, the northwest is on fire, the south and southeast under water or blowing away, with one massive hurricane chasing another.

It seems like something Will wrote in his will to Peewee is worth thinking about: “Roads are deteriorating, bridges collapsing, gas lines exploding… Wouldn’t that be cool? Sittin there chewing on your tofu taco and BLAM! No more Taco Tuesday.”

Considering just these last two hurricanes, what Will also wrote to Peewee quoting the Dalai Lama (one of my and Will’s favorite sages) might be worth thinking about (and maybe doing something about):

“Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where Mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence.”

Giving the Earth a human quality like “acceptance” is a metaphor called ‘personification.’ Or if I want to appear really smart: ‘anthropomorphism.’

Although personification is a tool used in poetry and fictional writing, we all do it without realizing what we’re doing. Like ‘Mother Earth,’ or ‘Mother Nature.’ And we all know – piss off Mother and she’s not silent. There are consequences. What If the Dalai is right?