Have you ever thought of an idea that was so apparent it seemed like it must have already been done? One you knew couldn’t be original because of its sheer obviosity. This was the conversation in which my uber idealistic sister and her equally idealistic sister engaged while sharing the following concept. A caveat: of course, there are no truly original ideas because we billions of humans share a subconscious, super conscious, frequently unconscious, uh consciousness. Shared streams of mutually or spontaneously conceived ideas cross synaptic paths to occur to multiple individuals just as we share inhaled water molecules, skin dust, and dioxides.
So, when I ask you to imagine a League of Nature to unify and communicate with a consortium of earth-centered activities from all nations, wouldn’t you assume that it already exists?
Well okay great where is it?
Sister Sarah said, “Ruh-dick-you-loss! It’s a meta concept that is so simple the obviosity hides it!”
I said, “Right? It can’t be original but it’s past time for all of us.”
Perhaps a League of Nature charter could pose collective active questions like these:
- What can we learn from Nature about how to care for Earth and each other?
- What could be conserved, protected, and sustained if we celebrated Nature as the valued currency?
- What if our economic monies pictured predecessors to humans now endangered by humanity?
- What if commerce reciprocated back to preserving our home?
- What if you had to get the whole town’s permission to euthanize a tree whose trunk was larger than yours? A group tried to get that passed in Portland, ME following the example of a town in CA.
- What if rationales posited ‘in the name of development’ included discussion of the earth’s microbiome?
People are having these conversations in wonderful ways. We’d like to accelerate and collectivize it. Perhaps we can begin a true earth equity by enacting a different kind of banked reserve* in which the bills feature the sea, the whale, endangered species, mountain ranges, and large tree species that predated humans by millions of years? I imagine we could keep the departed founding fathers on coins for posterity. (Where are the mothers by the way?)
Back in the late 1940’s my great uncle was in league with a cadre of intellectuals (warning this is a blatant name drop) that included the one and only Dr. Albert Einstein. They were on a mission to develop the shelter state of Israel with the League of Nations to promote unity and peace after World War II. That League of Nations later became the United Nations. Dr. Einstein spoke of the miracles of Nature’s creativity, modeled an optimistic trust in the worthiness of all beings, and shared an overarching reverence and gratitude for our beautiful Earth home.
What could happen if we approached this pivotal era with an appreciative, reciprocal point of view such as a League of Nature, rather than a domineering, capitalistic one that acts like we are entitled to profit from the Earth? What could happen if we repeatedly ask as Robin Wall Kimmerer does in Braiding Sweetgrass, how Earth loves us back all of the time? Check out the link to Kimmerer’s book on our Like Minds page for her excellent manifesto and exploration of this topic.
The purpose of Earth Family Trust is to explore, share, celebrate, protect, and innovate in concert with Nature’s wisdom; to communicate amongst tendrils of communities that are unified in protecting, sustaining, and celebrating Nature.
We’ll write our joy of Nature here. We’ll custom make things for you from our hand tended gardens and the gardens of kind partners while the season’s harvest lasts. We’ll innovate health and educational systems to forward wellbeing. We’ll congregate and call out wisdom writers and visionary organizations doing wonderful work. We’ll celebrate our lives on One Ball.
Maybe we can inspire and develop things together. Perhaps let’s start by inquiring what a League of Nature could become.
*How would you name this currency, and how does the exchange work? Is CurrentSea redundant? This idea is explored in my upcoming story with the working title Nature’s Secret Society of Fools, due out some year soon.