Our entire economic and social structure seems to be centered around the two prevailing attitudes of "Accumulate and Consume." God supposedly gave Man dominion over all the earth (including women, animals, fish, birds, plants and the very rocks), instructed him to propagate to the max, and, by extension, condoned Man's rape and pillage of the earth's resources, more politely called accumulate and consume.

Some would have us beat our breasts, cover ourselves with sackcloth and smear our hair with ashes. Reduce our holdings to a cave and a deerskin and live on roots and berries. Extol poverty and want as holy virtues. What a lot of nonsense; from one extreme to another, each proponent trying to discredit the other by taking the other's viewpoint to the nth degree.

How about a practical commitment to reduce, reuse, and recycle in a sensible way. Don't buy the new spangly top unless I really need it. Use (and re-use) food safe stainless steel bottles instead of throw-away plastic ones. And dozens of other little, quiet actions.

When I see myself as an integral part of the whole earth, I start seeing so many ways in which I can enhance my ongoing education in defending and protecting the earth, while still tending to my own needs in a moderate way.

It's not wrong to accumulate, nor wrong to consume. What's wrong is doing either to excess and doing things that tend to harm the environment or support activities which injure other people (such as child labor in sweatshops).

Do something to heal. Refrain from doing harm. See? It's easier than I thought.