Three Types of Relationship

Life on Earth is heating up. One effect is to accelerate changes like the melting of glaciers, the destruction of habitats, and the predicted extinction of a million living species, not excluding humans.  The picture of the coming climate: Armageddon painted by scientists is not consoling.

 

As a species we’re facing an enormous challenge that is unavoidable, and each day the future seems to look grimmer and more disorienting. Chaos and disintegration approach on scales unprecedented.  In light of this not too jolly premise, I find myself wondering about the fragility of relationships. 

 

It struck me that there are three kinds of relationship we all have.  We are in relationship with ourselves; with other human beings; and with the natural world we’re part of. All three are problematic, given the terminal dangers introduced by human activity.

 

As for relationship to ourselves, many of us manage reasonably well. But many not so well, and problems with ourselves can range from morbid self-loathing to criminal megalomania.

 

As to how we relate to others, conflict and wars of all kinds are creating mountains  of corpses and mangled bodies, flattened houses, blasted churches, sanctuaries, hospitals and schools reduced to rubble, with millions of ruined lives in their wake. 

 

As for how we relate to the living natural world we’re a part of—the answer is miserably.  Suicidal, self-destructive, cosmically stupid, to be more exact.  Ever since the Industrial Revolution, humans have managed to create a monster called climate change. We’ve polluted, overheated, and wrecked ecosystems all over the planet.  And this is not a one-off event; it’s a process that needs to stop or else it will roast, drown and starve us to death.

 

Instead of an industrial revolution, we need a revolution in the way we see, understand and experience the world.  The creative center for the entire enterprise revolves around the way we relate to ourselves.   After all, the way we relate to other people must be a function of the way we’re tuned to ourselves.  If we’re not moderately happy, relating to other people and the natural world are bound to suffer.

 

The key to the three relationships then is how we relate to ourselves. ‘Know yourself,’ was inscribed on the pediment of the temple of Apollo. A signpost to ancient Greek wisdom.  Our relationship to ourselves is the primary challenge we need to consider. The relationship to oneself contains the potential for something transformative, even futuristic.  

 

We are thrown into a world of bewildering relationships. There is our beautiful planet and the sprawling universe. There are other humans, saints and savages we have to contend with. And finally, there is our mother the natural world with all her powers and mysteries. A mother poisoned, polluted, and exploited.  

 

We've learned to plunder the material Earth as if it were raw material made for us to use and consume. Nature is treated as a soulless resource to be exploited in whatever way serves human desires, including  profit. Technology, in this way, spells the death of the sacred. All things are now for sale.

 

So here we are, facing a frightening future. Are we up to the changes we must make to insure our survival as a species? Are there latent powers we possess but don’t know how to mobilize? A large question mark hangs over our most important relationship, which is to ourselves. The greatest challenge but also the most interesting—a relationship impossible to avoid.