The Shadow of Dow

Each day in the shadow of Dow seems to further me from anything natural. I have never known anything but city life, though the cment beneath my feetsickens me. I live atop one of the worlds most amazing watersheds, that has strategically been destroyed for at least 100 years. Lake Huron may well be one of the last "unspoiled" great lakes and we here in Sarnia have failed miserably in our job as the gatekeepers.Everything south of my view is destroyed. I always thought it was the urban sprawl or perhaps the vast number of chemical plants, though after viewing the ariel photography I understand that farms fuel the consumption almost as much as they scar the land.Their patchwork of fertelizer, prevents any possibility of a balanced water table under that soil. Being half native almost cripples me because I feel nothing is as it should be; the natives eyes are cursed, their keen observations are certainly a weakness in this age of ignorance. The speed of "progression" is maddening. A mere 200 years ago the balance was disturbed, since then we pull oil from the earth to travel faster. At one point not so long ago each step was in the shadow of our forefathers, that knowledge leads to frustration when ones forefathers began the wanton destruction of the very beauty that brought us here in the first place. I spent 3 years in college learning cartography: a curse of incredible perception of geography was my"reward". I now see with cartographic precision the daily polution from one of the "greatest" chemical valleys in North America". The ariel photography leaves no doubt, we have scarred the land.
"Koyasnasquatsi" translates as life out of balance,awareness and understanding are now 2 of the scariest concepts in todays society. The only logical move seems to be escape. The changes that have to be made are going to be drastic for many. Imagine waking up tomorrow and all of your money was worthless. What if survival meant learning to live outside "the grid". The planet was designed to handle a certain amountof pollution from all its creatures, the problem arises when the pollution is concentrated into cities,who because of all the cment have no natural filtration left. Our rapid expansion espescially here in North America has created unbelievable stress on the land. The breaking points are being realized sooner, rather than later, the system has gone too far. When I close my eyes it's worse; then I focus on the sound of the energy we are pulling from the earth. The humming increases as it travels across and down the river. To be ignorant of such things would truly be blissfull; that is not my fate. It seems the more I try to ignore, the more aware I become. I understand the lure of alcohol and almost see the benefits in its stupid happiness. Although it seems more apparent at night, we have created the machines that consume;literally; constantly. The ironly lies in the fact that supposedly no oneperson can make a difference, and every single person,makes all the difference. The balance has shifted somuch that ones place is lost. A friend once commented that he had never lost touch with nature; my immediate response was that if you have been born in the past 100 years you likely have never have the chance to be in touch with nature because it was already gone. As a matter of fact most people have lost touch witht hemselves directly due to that seperation from nature. The replacement is ridicilous as well, most of our time watching some type of radiation box, that seems to have only one purpose, perpetuate fear.
Nightmares are affecting my waking eyes, the seperations are becoming more difficult to make. The solution cannot be ignorance. In the microcosmic scale each of our lives alters this system profoundly.Macrocosmically we have changed this little blue ball floating through space. Never before in the history of man has each of us had access to the information regarding the consequences of our consumption. My sobriety brings forth all my fears, not of the unknown, but of the most widely accepted truths. The facts of reality only plunge one futher into despair.Societies and civilizations are the most unnatural things the planet has ever seen. The past two years has been dedicated to findingmyself internally, my center was all but forgotten,Igot caught up in finding others. The more I learn about myself, the more I realize that I am suffering,and with that comes and understanding of something pure; life is suffering. My conflict is that in order to search my soul anyfurther I need to cultivate wisdom and compassion,which difficult in todays society. I need to trace my roots, each viewing of the chemical plants and farms disgusts me further. I cannot alleviate anyones suffering and only through recognition of my own can I even begin repair.