Sunday, August 19, 2018

We Can?!



Next month we enter the jewish New Year ׂׂ(5779ׁ) The period of preparations (starting mid-August) for the High Holidays, creates an atmosphere that always puts me in a pensive mood.

The era we live in, is full of 'we can' slogans: we can change the climate/the world/the planet/the human race...if only we'll do this or that. 

Who's wePeople can hardly change a small personal bad habit like smoking, overeating, drugs, alcohol. It's sometimes incredible as even doctor's warnings won't do the trick.
So, where does this lack of humility come from? Bad education, I guess. The younger generations in particular are not fully aware of human limitations , and do a lot of 'we can'  talking, spreading empty slogans around. 

Climate change, is here to stay , and that's very frightening. True, we still have the islands, we still control fires and famine, but the emphasis is on the word 'still'. We're approaching the abyss slowly but steadily, and we're quite helpless.



Air pollution is frequently mentioned in connection with climate change. Indeed, we should be fighting pollution with all the means at our disposal. It won't be easy , but it's possible, and we have to do it for the sake of our health and the health of the planet.

However, in my humble opinion, air pollution is but a small factor in this whole issue of climate change. Climate is the domain of a higher power; most of us refer to it as God, others as  Universe, Supernatural power, Nature. We, people, cannot control climate, only the higher power can, and this power seems to be angry with us. Not without reason.

Humans, have always been involved  in violating the rules and order of  Creation (by way of war, migration, slavery, colonialism, imperialism...the list is long); thus, making endless changes to the world, but changes which are Not accepted by God, not written in His book, and therefore not solvable in case of conflict, but rather swept under the carpet waiting for a spark to ignite the big fire.  

We might be facing a world Reset in the future, When? No one knows .
We should  pray and ask for Mercy - that's all I can think of..



34 comments:

  1. I pray but I also act. I collect rubbish. I do what I can to eradicate my contribution to pollution. And that of others. Its down to us now.

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    1. That's what I usually say about myself: I believe in God, I pray to God - but I don't hide behind His back. I try to do my part whatever that is.

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  2. "We, people, cannot control climate, only the higher power can, and this power seems to be angry with us. Not without reason."

    You reminded me of something Joyce Meyer (a well-known bible teacher) said. One day she posted simply, "God is not mad at you." It quickly became her most read post ever. Lots of people think God is mad at them. He is not. He reaches out His arms to us.

    But our world is crazy, isn't it?

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    1. Well, with all due respect to Joyce Meyer, I believe that the many disasters of the last decades show us that God is angry with human behavior that has turned the world into a "crazy" one.

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    2. Ezekial 18:32 says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

      He calls us. He loves us.

      There is so much evil in our world, but He longs to rescue us from it, not destroy us in it.

      Blessings, DUTA.

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    3. I totally agree with this view. God has no pleasure in death, wants to rescue us not destroy us.

      However, in order to rescue He has to
      warn. His warnings are sometimes deadly, and don't distinguish between the wicked and not wicked.

      What I said in the last sentence, makes me pray as an individual,separately, not together with others who might include evil people.

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  3. Well said Duta!! And so timely!! What a good post and I hear it as a call for repentance, and `teshuvah` as the way you started with the coming New Year, and then what can we do?? Praise God, seek His face (as the Psalm 27 says!!), seek repentance, and His mercy, spend time in prayer. I pray too that many will turn to see who it is that can change the world!! God Bless you as you seek His face in these days leading up to the New Year!!

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    1. Thank you, Shayndel. God bless you too!
      You're right about calling these days, days of repentance and prayer. We're given the chance to redeem ourselves and we should take that chance.

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  4. I did read somewhere recently and interview with a scientist who said this isn't so much about pollution as about cycles of cold and hot weather which repeat every half a century or so, and according to him we are apparently slowly ending the hot cycle these years and should again return to colder one soon.
    Some small changes have been noticeable recently in the education of people when it comes to pollution, just think of plastic, most countries are already working steadily of lowering its use or even ban of it (in plastic bags, straws and cups etc). Our supermarkets have started donating money to charity for each buyer who does not buy a plastic bag at the register. I've also watched yesterday some company in Indonesia, methinks, which has started making bags from algae which are edible even for humans, and thus nontoxic. I think these nasty weather changes will lead us to changing ourselves as mankind and species like in sf movies.
    That being said, I think we will sooner kill and destroy ourselves in wars and such things than nature doing it to us through tsunamis and heat.

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    1. It's all about cycles, according to science. We know about that, and yet I have the feeling that this is different; that we're heading towards something very bad.

      'Pollution' awareness is getting better, and that makes us feel good about ourselves. Small steps can sometimes lead to big, positive changes. Let's hope we're on the right track, and that there's still a future for us humans.

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    2. You do remember than only ten years ago they told us the temps will be going up just two degrees per a century or something, and ten years later we have 48*C summers instead of usual 30*C. They also said the water will rise in hundreds of years, now they say most of the seaside cities will be flooded before 2100.
      Do you reckon some dark human powers are doing it this intentionally? Ruining the weather through satellites and HARPS to destroy crops and make us use the resilient Monsanto ones? Like the pharmaceutical Mafia creates diseases and outbreaks for their own financial gain?

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    3. Interesting (and frightening) theory!
      There's, indeed, a big Mafia out there (Monsanto, Pharma...), but it works quite successfully and effortlessly on us people without many expenses on the mafiots' part. No need for the Mafia to mess around with the Superior Power mentioned in my blog.
      But you've made me think, who knows?
      Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Some poeple can change their personal bad habits and do small things to help with things like climate change. But with as bad as some things are, like the littering in the oceans...it would take everyone or practically everyone's help in solving some of these Earth bound problems and that's never gonna happen.

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    1. Indeed, so. Many people can and do change their bad habits, if only temporarily, and sometimes with great effort, and /or occasional help from various support centers.

      As for pollution, there's an increase in awareness, and that gives us Hope. Maybe God will take mercy on us and scientists will come up with some solutions.

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  6. Interesting, I have never analised this slogan, but you are right, if we can anything, it's unfortunatelly usually somethong bad:(

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    1. Thank you, Ola. Human skills are great and diverse; unfortunately, as you've put it, they're often used in the wrong direction, helping the bad forces: weaponry, war tactics, treachery, fraud etc..

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  7. The climate changed here yesterday....strong westerly winds arrived...and it's changed again today, it seems...the wind has died down ...for now.

    Humans can think they're can do it all...but they can't! :)

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    1. I live in a warm country with short, relatively mild winters. The last winters, however, were harsher than usual and we are not well prepared for them.
      The houses are not well insulated, and the heating sytems are quite expensive.

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    2. It sounds like your climate is a similar climate to here where I am, DUTA.

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    3. Yes,it is. There was a time in my life when I wanted to emmigrate, and I 'put my eye' on Australia, mainly because of the more or less similar kind of weather. It's not that I enjoy heat, far from that, but at least it doesn't affect my joints as cold weather does.

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  8. I send good wishes for our new years, here, there and everywhere, no matter when they come. We need all the good wishes we can get -- at least here in the US. The world could use them too. A most thoughtful post, DUTA.

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    1. Thanks, Jeannie.
      True, we do need all the good wishes and good will we can get. We seem to be all in the same boat with that climate issue, so we should stick to each other. That might help us survive and overcome the bad times.

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  9. Boa tarde, o clima está a mudar até concluir o seu ciclo, depois voltará ao normal para cada estação.
    Feliz semana,
    AG

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    1. I too believe in cycles; however, it seems the climate is lately getting only worse. No normality about it. I hope I'm wrong about that.

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  10. Do not think ill of me but for some reason, I have always wanted to experience a Jewish new year as a member of a jewish family. No other holiday or religion have I any desire to experience. Do you know of any documentary that I could watch as I think that is the closest I will ever get. As for climate change it is real but peoples habits have a great deal to do with it. Such as with all the concrete, houses and roadways. Mother Earth meant for the land to absorb th rain now we have way too many highways etc that turn into rivers. I hate litter and plastics should not be produced nor styarfoam. All of the people in the world have become throw away nations and now the ocean is suffering with our throw away habit. Off the soap box for now. Peace

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    1. Indeed, Concrete and Plastics are not good for our Mother Earth.

      The hebrew phrase for jewish New Year is - Rosh Hashana (head of the year, in free translation).If you google Rosh Hashana, you get plenty of info. There are also youtube videos on the subject. The jewish american actress and author Mayim Bialik has a video on Rosh Hashana which I think is very liked and appreciated by non-jews.

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  11. I would disagree about the source of climate change, or its cure. My faith is a little different than yours. There is so much pollution and we've messed with the planet over many years. We are learning to live better, cleaner lives, with solar power, electric cars. I have high hopes! Happy New Year!
    I agree that there are weather swings.

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    1. I'm really glad of your high hopes, Jenn. I'm a great fan of solar power,always have been, but it doesn't advance as expected.
      The thing is we haven't got time.
      Thanks for wishing me a Happy New Year.

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  12. I think many times the "we can" attitude and slogan is just a tool to keep us from falling into despair that there is no hope, it's a way to cope with loss or sadness or things beyond our control.

    Very interesting post and I enjoyed reading the comments and the interchange back and forth in ideas and thoughts.

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    1. I agree with you that the "we can" slogans might be a way to cope with things "beyond our control".
      I'm flattered by your concluding sentences. Thank you, Alicia.

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  13. Boa tarde, venho desejar-lhe feliz fim de semana.
    AG

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  14. Thank you. I wish you a happy weekend too.

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  15. Humans can be so destructive!
    I wish we were more in tune with nature - we should work with it and not against it.

    An interesting post ... In my own small way, I will continue to do my best to make the world a happier and better place.

    All the best Jan

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    1. "...more in tune with nature..." - sounds good and logical. Things are improving, but I'm very much afraid it's rather late. Let's hope the saying "better late than never" is still valid for us.

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