Printed in Harper's Magazine, April & May issues, 2021.
Environment is an encompassing term with many contextual applications. It reaches into the entirety of our experience—every dusty, neglected corner that defines our perceptions and surroundings. Despite our constant and total immersion in the experience of our environments, environmentalism has been reduced to a reactive process—a process forced into the role of addressing damages already incurred.
Acts against the environment are not perpetrated solely by the world's uncaring, nor by the profiteers and/or misguidedly self-interested. The taxes we impose upon Nature are being levied by all of us—intentions, ideals, and political allegiances aside. The damages that environmentalism seeks to address stem from the very basis and structuring of our modern cultures and societies as a whole. Our demands of this Earth are hidden behind the most common, and passively accepted, ways in which we think, act, expend, consume, and live. To regain environmentalism as a progressive process, we must accept the work of unlearning.
We must unlearn destructive beliefs and unsustainable patterns of behavior. We must reconnect with our own power-of-intuition in spite of our society's motivations to keep us overwhelmed, over-leveraged, and distracted. Environmentalism must be restored to an intuitive practice—a way of living that honors connectedness and is intimately aware of what one gives-to and asks-of the Nature that we are from. When intuition and autonomy-of-Self are regained, environmentalism will cease to be a reaction, a battle, or series of concessions. It will simply become the way. To care for Nature is to care for yourself, which in turn is to care for those you love and wish to protect.
The work I've undertaken is the work of disseminating ideas, ideas that can help to restore our connections to Self and Nature at the most basic and fundamental level. If you found this webpage, it's likely that you came across one of my published ideas. I use my own publishing company, Pondering Poet Publishing, Co., to facilitate the purchase of "ad-spaces" and oversee the distribution of my works. My efforts are financed with my own labor-wages-earned and with the contributions from those who wish to help. If my work is of value to you and you wish to contribute, I'll do all I can to ensure that your donation is used in the most effectual way possible.
Acts against the environment are not perpetrated solely by the world's uncaring, nor by the profiteers and/or misguidedly self-interested. The taxes we impose upon Nature are being levied by all of us—intentions, ideals, and political allegiances aside. The damages that environmentalism seeks to address stem from the very basis and structuring of our modern cultures and societies as a whole. Our demands of this Earth are hidden behind the most common, and passively accepted, ways in which we think, act, expend, consume, and live. To regain environmentalism as a progressive process, we must accept the work of unlearning.
We must unlearn destructive beliefs and unsustainable patterns of behavior. We must reconnect with our own power-of-intuition in spite of our society's motivations to keep us overwhelmed, over-leveraged, and distracted. Environmentalism must be restored to an intuitive practice—a way of living that honors connectedness and is intimately aware of what one gives-to and asks-of the Nature that we are from. When intuition and autonomy-of-Self are regained, environmentalism will cease to be a reaction, a battle, or series of concessions. It will simply become the way. To care for Nature is to care for yourself, which in turn is to care for those you love and wish to protect.
The work I've undertaken is the work of disseminating ideas, ideas that can help to restore our connections to Self and Nature at the most basic and fundamental level. If you found this webpage, it's likely that you came across one of my published ideas. I use my own publishing company, Pondering Poet Publishing, Co., to facilitate the purchase of "ad-spaces" and oversee the distribution of my works. My efforts are financed with my own labor-wages-earned and with the contributions from those who wish to help. If my work is of value to you and you wish to contribute, I'll do all I can to ensure that your donation is used in the most effectual way possible.
Mailing Address:
Douglas Matthew Balmain
Pondering Poet Publishing, Co.
P.O. Box 2092
Laramie, Wyoming 82073
USA
(I'm sometimes away from this mailbox for long periods of time. If you wish to contact me more quickly, or if you have any questions about donating please send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. )
Douglas Matthew Balmain
Pondering Poet Publishing, Co.
P.O. Box 2092
Laramie, Wyoming 82073
USA
(I'm sometimes away from this mailbox for long periods of time. If you wish to contact me more quickly, or if you have any questions about donating please send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. )
