The last time our creation went as badly awry as it is at present was way back in the mists of mystery and myth in the story of The Flood -- the one with Noah and his fine ark. Genesis 5:5-7 spells out the problem (somewhat):
"When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, God was sorry that humans had ever been made or put upon the earth. God was so filled with regret that God said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them."
Of course, the short riff of the story is that Noah found favor, built the ark as instructed, sailed the seas of destruction, and then landed with all the pairs of reinhabitants to start a new chapter for humanity (and planet Earth). God placed the rainbow in the skies as the seal of the covenant never to do that again.
The majority opinion in mainstream Christianity is that this is a teaching myth, shared by other religions. If so, what lesson should we learn? Maybe that humanity is capable of mucking up the works so badly that there's nothing to do but start over? Which brings us to the present. Are we, as a planet, again at this soon-to-be crossroads? Climate scientists say yes.
The human predicament is still as it always has been: when we're good- spiritually aware- we can be very good, but when we're bad, it can be very bad. The continuance of the earth depends on a healthy balance between the good and the bad. Ideally, we will lean in favor of the good. But in the United States, the current situation is placing "good" on very shaky ground. The driver for this trend appears to be the cynical attitude of the ultra-rich to strip as much from the Earth for themselves as possible. Therein lies the true predicament: a few with over-inflated privilege robbing the whole. Yet we all do it in our own self-centered ways. The predicament grows terminal as each individual starts to assert a right to have and defend what they consider precious. All creation becomes a zoo of silos - each one grabbing onto and storing a hunk of Creation as their very own. The sole focus of living becomes acquiring and holding tightly to each one's little kingdom. The quibbling, petty physicality of this predicament erases the glue that holds it all together - the spiritual - the Source. Is there an option for saving creation from this foolish myopia that averts the pending utter destruction?
As innumerable sages from all ages and faiths have declared: Return to the Source. The Source is the Wisdom that guides our steps. It is the collective Care for neighbor. It is the Gentleness with which we walk the Earth. It is the Union created by holding onto the lessons of past generations, ever conscious of the generations to come. Humans crave what's theirs. They crave simple solutions, e.g., the barrel of a gun. They seek the easiest answers to the most complicated - answers that usually only serve the few.
Yet, we do not serve only our own kind or just the people next to us. We are woven into a cosmic expanse that transcends time and place. The eons and cosmos are One. Those who have gone before are still inescapably joined to us. They still pray with us to the same Source. The Vision is that even as Creation continues to expand, it is eternally held tightly in the Love that first brought the Light.
The remedy to a Flood-type apocalypse wrought by our futile human predicament is to see the forest. We exist not as individual trees. We're gathered by the Architect of Creation, glued into an evolving beauty that came before we were born into it and lasts as an eternal present moment of evolutionary Hope, where we get to the future together as the Old Testament story of the Promised Land foretold.
This is our future should we choose to accept it. Staying in this wilderness, worshipping the Golden Calf, comes to naught.
