What do I owe future generations? 

That was the question of the evening for the Socrates Cafe group.  We met again at Barnes & Noble.  Everyone around the table wore a mask.  It is yet unclear how truly effective the vaccine will be to protect us from the more contagious Delta virus.  Surely this is a sign that the future holds many unknowns.  It is only in retrospect that we are able to know what we have faced.  In other words knowledge comes in delayed time.  We have the experience, and perhaps then, learn the lesson.

Life is ironic is it not.  Like a clever joke with a wicked punchline that you did not see coming…  Humans are remarkable for the culture which language makes possible.  The dark underbelly of culture is hubris, a habit of assuming a god-like reach of our powers.  We become entranced with our own works.  With respect to science, an aspect of culture, are we not seduced to believe that knowledge is prospective, that we can predict the future?  We cannot.

Homer wrote about this tendency in his great epic The Iliad. The Iliad is bronze age tale of a war expedition of the Mycenaean Greeks in a protracted conflict on the plains of Troy.  Homer’s work is a cautionary tale.  Given global warming/climate change the tale of humanity for the next few generations will prove to be a cautionary tale.

For humanity in consideration of what the future holds, there are many issues at stake.  Military budgets, the enormous sums spent to maintain, equip, deploy American forces that protect and enforce our commercial interests are beyond my understanding, and my influence.  I am not a military technocrat.  The impact of the drought in the west, and the resulting wild fires are a sign of the end of business-as-usual.  Specifically what is to be done, given the Colorado river, and Lake Mead is at the lowest level since the construction of the Hoover Dam, triggering water rationing in areas producing much of our produce?  I do not know.  I am no bureaucrat.

Nevertheless I am moved to consider what I owe to the next generation.  The point is sharpened as a result of my engagement with our grandchildren ages 5 and 6.

Yesterday, and the day before we spent time with our two grandchildren.  Part of that time was used for fishing in the Fox River and exploring along the banks.  It is within my capability, and surely my obligation to share with that generation, represented by those two kids, what I know about fishing, and to develop with them, a love for the river, and for the creatures that live in it, within the woods along side it.

What is owed is not a one way street.  There is a feedback loop, the passing generation learns from the one that is coming into its own.  There are things which I do not know, and will never be able to do.  I had heard that my grandson was able to catch a bullfrog with his bare hands, by stealth and sharpness of eye.  I witnessed his process for myself as this amphibian was obtained barehanded, by a careful approach, and a swift grab of the hand…

What do I owe?  The point is the learning that allows one to fall in love, and remain in love with the earth for as long as one is here…