How many ballerinas have been to the Amazon? :)

Our resident professor for the trip, Peggy, Ph.D in forestry, asked me this question. It once again reminded me how incredibly blessed and lucky I am.

This week was one of the most memorable of my life so far. Not surprising, right? Chock-full of learning, enlightenment, and fun! Overall, I am present to nature as an innate part of me, and that no matter where I am or what my surroundings or environment are, I am in nature. This week, my mind and spirit truly grasped how Western philosopy of humans being separate from and dominant over nature is perhaps false. My choices on this planet impact nonhumans just as much as my choices impact people in my life. And as karma and Newton explain, everything I impact, will impact me in an equal way.

As I often think about how I want to impact the world, I more and more find the answer in a united shift of how we view our planet. And every global issue such as terrorism, climate change, poverty, hunger, can be originated to the imbalance in natural resources with humans, animals and plants. This has not always been so; this imbalance didn't exist when Native Americans lived in peace. They had what they needed and their religion revolved around keeping it that way. We rejected this attitude in modern times, following instead the philosophy of Aristotle and those of the Enlightenment, with respect to humans being the rulers of the world. This has created our current condition of lack of resources in some places and excess of resources in other places of the globe, which obviously leads to great conflict. Oil is the main culprit presently. Also, one root of terrorism is intense resentment of US citizens' quality of life and opportunities to progress or speak out. This exists, in part, because Western countries got wealthy from extracting and consuming natural resources, and therefore created better lives for their citizens; all while people not fortunate enough to have been born in the Western world watch as this gap in wealth and opportunity widened, withought being able to do anything about it. How unimaginably frustrating. The principles of natural resource use that world powers have implemented make a complicated mess of the earth, and create conflict between people, for so long.
Maybe Native Americans had it right with respect to their state of reality of the Earth. After all, they mastered how to live sustainably, how the entire human population can live on Earth forever. Maybe we Western-minded ones are the ignorant savages, blatantly destroying all we have, and focusing all energy on surface solutions and issues like war, money, research, development, instead of accepting the flaw in a commitment to indefinite growth and "advancement": the biosphere is finite. The answer to achieve "sustainability" is not just a shift in policy, politics, economics, energy sources, quality of life expectations, but a transformation of our state of mind. By being born into everything that comes with industrialization, like cities, highways, a house where barely even bugs live, I have been so blind to where I am living in the universe. I can't name 10 plants in my backyard. I squirm when an unharmful centipede crawls on my arm because the feeling is so foreign. I can't tell three volcanic mountains apart from each other, even though they are so distinct. I "leave the real world" and "go to nature". Maybe I would attain true fulfillment and deep satisfaction if I had been born where I evolved to be; with plants, animals, weather, geography as my reality and my skin in contact with earth.

Here is a quote by Russel Means, Lakota, quoted by Churchill in 1995:

"Capitalism and communism are simply the opposite sides of the same eurocentric coin. What the world needs is not a choice between capitalism and communism, between one aspect of eurocentrism or eurosupremeacism and another. What we need is a genuine alternative to the European tradion as a whole."

Maybe I should base my independent study project on how an Ecuadorian social or political issue can be originated to nature. Like how clashes in the view of utilization of nature between the Inca and Spaniards engendered the exploitation of natives during colonialization, which evolved into the poor, "developing" country that is today Ecuador. Or the mining fights between those of the Yasuni region and mining companies all evolve around oil, water and air (contamination), and land (deforestation). Hmmm. Tell me your thoughts.

Even if I can't impact the world at all, I am so lucky that I can still live my life by any principles I choose.

I am idealogical, naive and impractical, and I don't care! I hope this newly experienced view of Earth changes my life path forever.