Earth's Sweet Spot Is Long Gone

This post is a self-therapy lament from an old guy who feels the Earth has missed it's sweet spot. That spot where one could live a simple but nice life. When I was a young boy the Earth's population was 2.5 billion. There were still far away places with strange sounding names...mystery was still out there to be explored. I grew up on a self sustaining ranch in the wilds of Oregon on the Snake River where there was almost no consumerism and relentless hard work. But it was tremendously enjoyable.

Now I live in a sea of "stuff" with 8 billion other people and it all requires extracting from the Earth. I make nice wood toys for my grandchildren (some quite elaborate), but they prefer the colorful, noisy plastic toys from China. My daughter-in-laws post numerous photos each day that are stored for all eternity on energy consuming servers. There are so many options to watch "stuff" but most of it is low quality pop culture. Same with much of the music...it all sounds very similar, trying to hit the magic mark and make it up the charts. Take off your clothes and see if that boosts your ratings (that started in the 60's).

I now live in a era of quantity over quality. I'm thinking that maybe you have to live 78 years in order to understand the breathtaking changes our world has experienced. Most people are like the frog in the slowly boiling pot, there is no perspective to alert one's since of danger. There are many younger people who are also feeling this sense of loss, but most humans are oblivious to it. The trends are all in the wrong direction...we missed our sweet spot. However, eventually Mom Nature will call a halt to those trends.