Where do you stand?

After many prompts from a trustworthy friend I have decided to launch my ruminations into a blog. I was waiting for a catalyst big enough to justify the adventure and the universe responded rather dramatically as Tony Abbott was last night voted in as Prime Minister of Australia. Yikes. Other words came to mind but I'll try keep the postings free from that sort of language.
What scares me most is that the majority of Australians voted for a party that stands for trashing more of our national parks, eliminating the carbon tax, and stripping more money from the socially disadvantaged. Hugely successful movies often focus on the wonderful optimistic emotions generated when the underdog wins but now we get to watch  the underdog get kicked, over and over again. What fun. Especially if you are the underdog.
Dr David Suzuki, an eminent Canadian geneticist and naturalist and one of my idols is coming to Sydney later this month. He stands for nature and for hope. I am cramming now, reading and re-reading his books as I am definitely attending. Given our change in government, one of the points that stands out for me in Suzuki's book The Big Picture is that we must now consider a new economic model, one that isn't about producing more consumer goods. We currently use up in nine months what it takes one year for nature to produce. If the projected population is estimated to reach nine billion people by 2050, can we not see the potential disaster, the future written on the wall?
And so I share one of the many questions posed in his book: How much is enough? I ask: Do you know? Have you set an amount or a goal or even a dream of what you would like life to look like? What do you stand for? I read a passage from a different book yesterday that made me smile, this one called Earth Magic by Steven D. Farmer. In it he relates a story that he came across on the internet:

An American businessman was at the pier of a coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied that it only took a little while. The American then asked why he didn't want to stay out longer and catch more fish, but the Mexican said that it was enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
"I sleep late; fish a little; play with my children; take siesta with my wife, Maria; and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."
The businessman scoffed. "I'm a Harvard MBA, and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats; soon you'd have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You'd have to leave this small village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you'd run your expanding enterprise."
"But, senor, how long will all this take?"
"Fifteen to twenty years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed. "That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!"
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
"Then you would retire. You would move to a small coastal fishing village where you'd sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, and stroll into the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos."

  How has it become so ingrained that we have to always be pushing ourselves to be more, do more, earn more, have more? Do you know why I think so many of us love to get into nature, be it a park, zoo, beach, or even garden? Because it's one place where we can just be. The trees don't rush the flowers, the grass doesn't rush the beetle, and none of it rushes us. We can just sit and be. And guess what, we don't need permission to do that. But now we will need to be proactive, thanks to our new Prime Minister, to preserve those places not only where we can just be, but that stabilise the climate, clean our air and water, keep our soil fertile, and maintain a very delicate balance that sustains all fifteen or so million animals (that we know of), including humans. We've had a change in government; it's a good time to change how we govern ourselves too.