#aaronsullivan

Aaron Sullivan

Environmental Literature

Essay #2

            It is truly mind blowing to consider how many species of life exist on our planet. The various regions on Earth are populated with biological communities containing specific physical and chemical attributes pertaining to each abiotic setting. This creates a process of interconnected living in the environment known as an ecosystem. These bio diverse habitats provide numerous free services to the world, but due to environmental neglect these communities are being demoralized. Humanity has caused detrimental harm to tropical forest and desert ecosystems around the world and the consequences have been made irreversible in some cases. Something must be done to preserve these ecological habitats before they are completely destroyed by the hands of man. The complex system of life in each of these specific environments is truly incredible, but many do not fully understand the composition involved or the important roles that deserts and forests contribute. If these issues continue to go unnoticed for much longer then within the next few decades it is inevitable that our planet’s climatic conditions will continue to worsen, resulting in many species living in these regions to become extinct.

Themes:

            When Lauren refers to change she uses it in the context referring to God. She was raised Christian, but she turned away from that belief and forms her own religion based on her observation that everything in the universe changes. “Change is ongoing. Everything changes in some way- size, position, composition, frequency, velocity, thinking, whatever. Every living thing, every bit of matter, all the energy in the universe changes in some way. I don’t claim that everything changes in every way but everything changes in some way” (Lauren Pg. 218).

 I also do not believe in God the way Christianity views the subject, even though I was raised Lutheran when I was growing up. I believe that every living person is just as knowledgeable as every other person in the world about what our purpose in life is; nobody truly knows what happens after this life. People should believe in whatever they want to believe in as long as their belief does not cause harm to people or society. Why should they be forced to follow a religion that praises a God that they don’t even believe is true?  

Lauren’s “Earthseed” philosophy relates God to be the cause of change. She follows this philosophy and creates a new religion, embracing change as a way of life. When a society no longer provides protection and order, then the best way to survive is for one to create a community of their own. Lauren does this by accepting that change is necessary in order to form a working society.

            “Any change may bear seeds of benefit. Seek them out. Any change may bear seeds of harm. Beware. God is infinitely malleable. God is change” (Pg. 116). This passage really hit home with me in the sense that Lauren’s decisions to acclimate a new lifestyle had both beneficial and harmful consequences. My decision to change lead to where I am today, but I had to go through some of the hardest lessons that life has to offer in order to do so.

            Lauren lost her mother at an extremely young age and contracted, "hyper-empathy syndrome," which means that she feels the physical pain of others in her own body. Her condition carries on with her throughout the story. I lost my father to suicide at the age of thirteen, which completely changed my life forever. In the years following my dad’s death I made some very destructive choices for myself, based on all the hurt, anger and confusion I was feeling. In a way, I connected Lauren’s susceptibility to feeling other peoples’ physical pain to the agony I inflicted on myself and others to try and numb the emotional pain.

            I began to use drugs on a daily basis to try and numb all the hurt I was feeling; as years progressed, so did the drug use, and the problems at home began to escalate. I have an older brother who also found comfort in drugs as resource to take his mind of my father’s death. We lived in a gated community in Las Vegas, so it was easy to ignore the reality of the outside world by getting high. Lauren lived in a similar type of community structure, but surrounded by walls. Her environment outside was filled with chaos and violence, but despite these horrible truths she still knew that she needed to change the direction her life was headed in before it was too late. She knew she had to escape the community and make her own destiny. The chaos in my life at the time was taking place not outside the community, but rather in my own home. Unlike Lauren, I didn’t accept the fact that I needed to change my lifestyle until further hardships impacted me in the years to come.

            My mother, who was a widow and raising two teenage boys on her own, was beginning to become aware of the drug problem arising between her two sons. About three years after my dad’s death, my brother and I began using the life-sucking drug that almost completely tore our family apart; Black Tar Heroin. My idea behind using drugs was to forget about the loss of my dad, but my failed perception of how to deal with the situation only made my life worse. I now was beginning to realize that something needed to happen to change the direction I was headed in, but my addiction had trapped me in a hole.

            I finally hit rock bottom with my drug use about six years ago when my mother informed me that her cancer had returned. She had been diagnosed once again with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the same cancer she had during my childhood. My brother and I knew we needed help and that our mother did not have much time left to live, so we made the decision to enter treatment for our addictions and change our lives. Lauren was able to perceive early on that her community would be destroyed in the years to come; that she needed to make her own destiny and change the fate of her future. I had to experience some of the worst hardships in my life in order to finally grasp the concept of change. “Your teachers are all around you. All that you perceive, all that you experience, all that is given to you or taken from you, all that you love or hate, need or fear, will teach you if you will learn. God is your first teacher and your last teacher. God is your harshest teacher; subtle, demanding. Learn or die” (Pg. 279).

            I was able to see my mother one final time, which happened to be on her birthday. She was so happy and proud of me for the choices I was making to change my life. Her battle with Lymphoma ended two weeks later, with her passing. My mother gives new meaning to the words strength and courage and her memory will forever remain in my heart.

            The loss of family members is an incredibly painful experience for anyone to go through in life, but I do believe that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Lauren eventually loses the rest of her family after she escapes the walled community and discovers they had all been violently murdered. When the disaster happens, Lauren shows that she is strong willed and determined, and that she possesses great leadership qualities. She leads her group in search of a better way of life, kills when she is threatened and enforces that the group follow guidelines to help their chances of survival. She also shows great compassion for others. “Kindness eases change” (Pg. 167). I found it interesting that violence and death began to play a part in Lauren’s life after the fact she accepted to change and escaped her community; in my life it took experiencing the loss of my parents and a serious drug addiction to teach me that I needed to alter the decisions I was making. She accepted change before all the violence and chaos erupted in her life, whereas and I accepted it after seeing how negative my life was becoming.

            After my treatment, I finished high school at a therapeutic boarding school here in Utah where I discovered my leadership capabilities. I graduated with honors and was given several awards at my graduation for the accomplishments I had achieved during my time there. Like Lauren, I learned that I can step up and help others when nobody else will. I changed myself because I accepted that it was the necessary action to take in my life, and I was now beginning to see the purpose for doing so. My parents may not be with me anymore, but I have learned that my friends are my true family now. Lauren acknowledges this too by inferring that if one no longer has a family, they should make one of their own. Then group of people she journeyed with has formed an egalitarian community, with each member having equal status regardless of race or sex. They all decide to stay in their new environment and support each other; they make survival plans for the future.