An old friend who is a long-time falconer recently wrote: “High in the consciousness of falconers that I would choose to keep company with is the knowledge that one does not ‘train’ a raptor. A captive-bred raptor is assisted to become self-realized; a wild-trapped raptor (such as I work with) is exposed to our learned ability to conduct ourselves in such a manner as to encourage them to believe in themselves, yet also believe that it is in their best interest to remain in our company. Either way… they are already perfect… we are the ones who must become worthy of their partnership. With few exceptions, the great falconry works allude to the value of applying the lessons we learn from our exposure to the wild creatures to our entire lives.”
One does not train a raptor, tame wilderness, conquer seas and mountains, or control the forces of nature, but the lessons we can learn from exposure to them are invaluable. We need the wild. We need the wild creatures. We need the lessons they can teach us and, more than at any time in our history, we must become worthy of their partnership. Right now, every week more than 150,000 acres of the earth’s forest are leveled, 70,000 acres are turned to desert and 127 species become extinct. Week after week after week, a litany of abuses of the planet and all that lives upon it continues, driven by a disregard of the value of partnership with the wild.
That is, we need the wild. Those whose thinking and emotions are bound up in the dogmas and delusions of anthropomorphism, who view themselves as masters rather than members of the natural order, are unaware of that need. The wild, however, does not need us (humanity) and at an exponential rate is exhibiting signs that it is growing weary of and responding to our presence. In this regard it is worth noting that earth is about 4.5 billion years old, the first primates showed up about 6 million years ago and the first homo-sapiens evolved from them and were in evidence about 2 million years ago. What we now consider humanity began to survive and thrive about 200,000 years ago. Human civilization is about 6000 years old and industrialization is about 300 years old. 2000 years ago the human population of earth was around 300 million. Since 1950 the human population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion and growing exponentially. Global warming is just one of many signs of the wild’s weariness with its human partners and, as Pope Francis recently wrote with great (and wild) cognition, courage and compassion: “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases…given off above all because of human activity…The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions.”
We need the wild. Neither the wild nor humanity needs blind faith, indifference or resignation.