Changing the Nature of States is Easier than Changing the States of Nature

Most nights you will find me walking the streets of the urbia north of suburbia. Since my television is most often used as a staging area for bills; loose change; and the phone numbers of people I'll never call; I like to use the hours between supper and sleep to whittle away at the thoughts stuck in my head. Motion breeds emotional clarity as I literally walk my thoughts into submission. My father constantly repeats his thoughts and the responsibilities that are on his mind. I think he does this because he fears that if he doesn't, he will forget them and be lost for what to do.

It is a sad thing to be lost. Like a child at the carnival who leaps forth into the crowd and soaks in the strange atmosphere recklessly before folding into tears at the thought of never returning to normal. Normal is my favorite natural state. Like a deep breath of crisp winter air, normal is the baseline to which we judge all other states of being.

Thoughts about the power of nature swirl in my head like the crescendo of a blustery winter wind searing a path across my face. Nature never obfuscates. It doesn't practice self deception or rationalize itself. It simply exerts its will upon itself. Flash freezes; ice storms; tsunamis; and other great acts of nature; remind me that I am living on a giant moss covered rock spinning and hurtling through the black mass of space. Nature doesn't have a clue about what we call "crappy weather". So while it can't get depressed, I have heard of tropical depressions and I imagine seeing a storm linger over a bar in a Caribbean beach resort. Reminiscing about early days as a hurricane and staring into their daquiri facing the inevitable downgrade into a tropical disturbance.

It is often said when we wish to understand something, we give it a human face. G-d becomes some white haired actor who dispenses morality with a gentle smile. I think we humans have finally figured ourselves out. We certainly have enough psychotropic drugs on the market today. If you have it, there is a pill to alleviate the symptoms. We have found the map of the brain, and started doling pills out like Happy Meals at McDonald's. We have made it possible to change the nature of states. We can make a happy person sad, and a sad person happy. We can change a benevolent mind into a violent dull actor (just add the right combination of alcohol and rejection). We can make someone who is obese lose weight through pills. We can change the nature of states through passive resistance. We choose to give up the fight. We have quit on ourselves and we have turned our control over to modern medicine.

Here's where I try and mix my metaphors into a noxious cocktail of thought. Maybe we are "the nature". Maybe we are supposed to rock out and mosh and wild through the night. Humans fight war, right? We wage destruction and practice deception every day. We are nature itself. We are the tornado funneling, the hurricane wailing, and the streetwalk ice cracking the hips of seniors around the world. We are the world. No matter how much concrete we throw on this planet, from skyscrapers to sidewalks, we comprise the worlds energy and that's a fact we tend to ignore.

We treat this planet like we're spending a weekend at the Radisson. As we pass this incredible buffet of nature, it's important to stop and take notice of our personal responsibility. Practice conservation, take just what you need and move along. Perhaps when we realize that changing the state of nature is possible, we can stop focusing on changing the nature of states.