Jan K. Collins and Jan L. Warner offer financial and legal planning advice for Baby Boomers and seniors in the new Lifestyles section...
Could you stand some Pollyanna?
Although I frequently sound like a crotchety Andy Rooney, I have days at the other end of my mood swings. Today is one of those days. Join me in appreciating what we take for granted.
If you were designing a habitat for the human race, could you have created a better one than earth?
Days are nice and bright for getting things done; the nights are dark for refreshing sleep. Summers are warm for basking in the sun; winters are cool for sliding down hills. The weather is moderated in southern climes for those who hate the cold.
When it rains, cleansing drinking water falls in shiny crystalline drops. Just imagine if it rained maple syrup. What a mess! We'd have to walk around under syrup umbrellas.
What wonderful whimsy to have winter rainfall in fragile, delicate snowflakes, each pattern unique. White was such a tasteful choice of color.
Would you have thought to decorate with growing stalks of green, the leaves of which cleanse the air the inhabitants need to breath?
Or, as you were inventing these growing things, would it have occurred to you that they could provide nourishment?
ANONYMOUS CREATOR
How to trigger the crop was solved with an army of flying workers that impregnated them. To persuade the birds and bees to accomplish this feat, tempt them with nectar-laden blossoms, beautiful and sweet-smelling.
Animals came into being to provide additional food. Wily enough to be evasive, they offer challenges for the hunter. Some are stalked in the verdant forests, others swim in the rolling seas. Serene species manufacture milk and eggs.
Wonder of wonders, both flora and fauna reproduced themselves. In perhaps the most pleasurable provision, sexual procedures assured the continued supply.
Once this self-sufficient globe was in place, a species was made to enjoy it — an animal with a brain capable of taking advantage of all the provisions, with a spark of creation that learned to manipulate them.
Progress was rapid. Mankind learned how to make fire. He/she studied nature and the rules that controlled the existence of all that had come into being.
As awe-inspiring as the system is, the architect remained anonymous, taking no bows for this incredible universe. Simplistically, the humans tried to show appreciation in ways that would have pleased themselves. They sacrificed animals and offered up discs of metal that humans considered of value upon but could purchase nothing for the creator.
PESSIMIST AGAIN
Noting the history of mankind on this stupendous sphere, my euphoria fades and the mood swings.
As incongruous as it seems, the inheritors of this masterpiece are poor stewards. They rape and pillage their inheritance. Nourishment is decreasing, pristine conditions are befouled, resources exhausted, carefully thought-out balances upset.
As species dwindle, crops diminish, air becomes unsustainable, the seas are laden with waste, and water is no longer pure. What action should be taken as a response to the actions of these ingrates?
Sadly, the question is posed to those incapable of creating the sublime sphere in the first place and too intent on their own pleasure to reverse the harm they have wrought.
Lorraine Lilja is a retired Press-Republican reporter. A collection of her columns, "Lilja's World," is for sale at local bookstores. Lilja can be reached at llilja17@hotmail.com
