No Man–or Other Animal–Is An Island

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. ~ John Donne

Puffins: Harbingers of Climate Change

Puffins: I’ve never seen one, but I feel their pain–a pain that they suffer, but not in the way that we suffer, knowing; dreading; blaming; lamenting the ends that we have created for ourselves by the ways we have treated the “least of these…”

This is a long and complex, insightful and sad bit of research (American Prospect) highlights the tangled webs that bring down clusters of species–or entire Orders over not much more time–of creatures in their webs of inter-relationship.

This kind of linkage is what John Donne expressed in his poem, though not likely in his mind extending beyond the Home Team species he belonged to.

I continue to advocate for a shift from the individual “pursuit of happiness” to the collective “ecology of well-being” as an end of our civilization’s measure of success. It would take the emphasis away from solely our perceived satisfaction of having (usually in this country MORE than) enough to a focus on the impact of all our actions on the health of all species in all biomes across present and future times.

Tl, dr. I’d hope maybe in time somebody will find this post and actually read–and then actually internalize the message in this article about Puffins.

Any puffin’s death diminishes me. And you?