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ITCHES AND SCRATCHES

4/2/2020

1 Comment

 
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You may recall Ogden Nash’s young belle from old Natchez whose garments were always in patchez. When comments arose on the state of her clothes, she replied, "When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez.”

I’ve been thinking of that young belle recently and wondering if she might be a version of Gaia writ small, or perchance Gaia is that young lady writ large.
Could our COVID-19 pandemic be a result of Gaia scratching where it itches? Has the human race become a virus on the skin on Gaia? Is She undergoing a spasm of irritation inciting Her to scratch?

I’m not saying that She consciously makes such a decision. We all sometimes find ourselves scratching where it itches even before we are consciously aware of the itch.

Have we become an infection? Have we killed off one too many of our fellow species, felled one too many forests, injected just too much poison into our atmosphere, practiced genocide once too often?

Are we at the tipping point for disaster, and is this present crisis the one that tips us over? Or is it a test to see whether we are worth saving? The Holy Scriptures of the world are filled with such tests. Perchance Gaia has Her own.

Is it possible that we might pass Her test?
1 Comment
Evelyn
4/2/2020 08:38:22 am

Someone suggested that “Hope springs eternal,” and I am grateful for those moments when it appears. When one is itching like crazy, it’s impossible to focus on anything except the itch. Hope, if it appears, may keep us breathing, but it may have its own kind of pain. We hope, but we fear what failure means.

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