Before the Deluge

I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory. How do we get beyond the complicated circumstances of our world? How do we deal with the individual and community consequences of actions that consume our terrestrial and marine resources, incite conflict and confrontation, and force us to decisions that make no sense and prolong the worst practices and behaviors that slowly consume our world, our values, and our lives? Dour thoughts, I suppose, and as I think about this condition these verses from an old Jackson Brown song, “Before the Deluge,” sound and resound in my head today: Some of them were dreamers And some of them were fools Who were making plans and thinking of the future With the energy of the innocent They were gathering the tools They would need to make their journey back to nature While the sand slipped through the opening And their hands reached for the golden ring With their hearts they turned to each other's heart for refuge In the troubled years that came before the deluge Some of them knew pleasure And some of them knew pain And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered And on the brave and crazy wings of youth They went flying around in the rain And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered And in the end they traded their tired wings For the resignation that living brings And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow For the glitter and the rouge And in the moment they were swept before the deluge Some of them were angry At the way the earth was abused By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power And they struggled to protect her from them Only to be confused By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour And when the sand was gone and the time arrived In the naked dawn only a few survived And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge These words speak to me emotionally as I consider the challenge that we face in response to the evidence of wholesale abuse of land, air, and sea. The implication is enormous. Dreamers and fools, we’ve stood before the deluge, and are now faced with the consequence of making plans for a future built on the fecundity of nature, not knowing, perhaps not even caring, if that wealth is squandered, never to be available again. This is not a naïve sentiment; the evidence is overwhelming in example after example where we have insulted and exhausted the land, poisoned the air, and polluted the water to the point where there is no oxygen even for marine animals to survive. Is it not a reasonable conjecture then that if we continue in this way we too will be swept before the deluge, indeed the fury of a final hour? It is a dire and depressing thought to be sure; that said, should we not do something about it? And so Browne’s concluding chorus: Now let the music keep our spirits high And let the buildings keep our children dry Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by By and by... When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky We have the light within us; actually, it is no secret, we know what to do to sustain life beyond the deluge. We have the knowledge, but do we have the will? Therein lies the challenge, the hard part by which we give up something known and familiar to create something new, to abandon one set of premises and values to invent and apply another that will guide us and our successors back to the water planet that will sustain us. Now, let the music keep our spirits high… We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio. JACKSON BROWNE lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. "Before The Deluge" lyrics provided for educational purposes and personal use only. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jacksonbrowne/beforethedeluge.html