APPROACHING THE END

As I enter my seventh decade I am increasingly aware the end approaches. The donkey that carries me about is not what he was in my youth, and yet I am content. The paradox is that end does not frighten or depress me. Part of the reason may be that I have succeeded in my ambition to attain happiness. I do not have those things that seem important to other people, no children, no cell phone, no car, no college degree, no credit rating, and no credit card. However, when I wake up in the morning, I have a smile, and I hum a tune on my way to work. Among my joys are the blue sky, the ants in the kitchen, the squirrels, crows, blue jays, nuthatches, mice, and even people. I have had a propagating positive effect that will carry on beyond my life.

There approaches another end that does make me sad. Life on earth is not what it was when I was young in verdant Baltimore. The numbers of bees, frogs, fish, and birds have declined, and I sense that life is struggling. The millions of tons of insecticide produced each year has eroded the foundation. The factory farming of fish and trees has depleted the middle, and without support the birds fall from the sky.

To have mankind gotten this far, but then to destroy it all seems tragic. My hope is that those that follow me will avert the tragedy and bring back to earth the paradise it once was. It will require a reevaluation of what is important. Learn to live with the bugs, squirrels, and mice. Their health is ours as well. Their joy increases ours.

Our lives are lived in flamboyant denial of our fundamental biologic equivalence to all other animals and it is only in death that we embrace our natural place in the global ecosystem. —Diane Karluk, M.D.

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