"Mend Your Ways"

A Hopi medicine man made some "rounds" in California (probably elsewhere) in the late fifties, early sixties; I heard him, as I recall in a Unitarian Church. His message paralleled Buckminister Fuller's ... "mend your ways before it is too late," and it may already be too late. His delivery was basic, things are "gathering steam," the downward momentum was more powerful that we imagined, and Mother Nature would not be nice in her reactions. This handsome, tall man reminded me of my Grandfather Roberts, nicely dressed in plain clothes, speaking his heart out.

Rachel Carson was in the wings, and Gaylord Nelson was on deck, soon to be pushing for Earth Day and the legislative recognition of the ills we were perpetuating. Meanwhile even into the turn of the century and beyond many legislators, politicians, bankers, professors and business people of all stripes denied the obvious and suggested we continue in our ways of environmental destruction and mischief. "Global Warming" was disputed, downplayed. I remember having the image of George W. Bush and Cheney riding in airconditioned limos, denying what was in everybody's faces, and then talking about "oil addiction" and other consequences seemingly with no thought to their life styles; while the glaciers were melting, the polar bear was becoming the "poster animal," and the confused American public tried to fathom its place in "The Long Emergency."

I tried to imagine recently that Hopi medicine man sitting in his hogan in Arizona, watching the latest TV coverage of floods, hurricanes, melting ice flows, drought in Hawaii, the reconstruction of New Orleans, a couple of burning oil platforms, shaking his head, apologizing to Mother Earth and praying. His is not a "I told you so" mentality, he is deeply hurt for his Mother and for her children throughout the Earth. I'm glad my Grandfather Roberts is not around to see this, his would not be as understanding as his Hope brother in Arizona.