Humanity

Humanity

I was sitting in my laundry room the other day sorting through piles of dirty laundry, courtesy of my seven year old son (who seems to change his clothes every five minutes) and I found myself thinking, "If he only knew the complexities of the Watershed, the Everglades, the South Florida Water Management District, and the Biscayne & Floridian Aquifers maybe he wouldn't change his clothes so often." But then again maybe if he knew these things he would, like so many people in South Florida, not care.

We all sit here, on the very edge of an entirely unique eco-system that does not exist anywhere else on the face of the Earth. Yet, the majority of the South Florida community is concerned not with the health of this eco-system but rather with the availability of "credit". Credit which they can use to buy the right clothes, the right SUV, the right set of fake boobs and the perfect pre-fab, cookie cutter house in the right Kendall subdivision. Hence, they can appear to be successful members of this consumer driven society. Now I realize that this is a blatant generalization and that it is a rather cynical view of humanity. But, let us not forget that in this society appearance is everything. And if that is really the case, what does humanity mean in this place, in this time and in this society?" You are probably asking yourself, "What does a contemporary conceptualization of humanity have to do with the Everglades?" Well, to me, the key to humanity can be found in the Everglades and the rest of the natural world beyond it. In the biological sciences there exists the concept of "niche." I have always understood a niche to be a place or a condition in which the abilities of an organism are best utilized and best suited. Essentially, a niche is a place where an organism can belong and be successful; it is a place where it fits. All organisms on the face of the earth have found a niche somewhere and barring human intervention they have flourished in those niches. They have adapted to the world around them. It is only human beings who seem incapable of adaptation and thus expect the world around them to adapt to their presence.

Is that then the characteristic and the nature of mankind which distinguishes us from other beings?