Breaking up with the Earth

Incoming: a big vague thought on feeling disconnected

In class we learn about complexity. Almost everything is a complex system, but the biggest one we study is the Earth. Since the 20th century, we slowly moved from working within disciplines to interdisciplinary approaches. Now, we shuffle towards transdisciplinary mindsets to make sure we don’t miss out on any perspective while understanding problems or devising solutions. We live complex lives, so why would our problems not be complex?

Shivapuri National Park on film, Winter of 2022 (Picture credits: Aashi Sethi)

What is a complex system?

Our home is a complex system…

…so are our thoughts…

…and the clutter on your desk is a complex system too.

There are smaller parts in all these systems that interact and create a whole that is different from its parts. There are many more important characteristics, but this is the basic definition.

In the opinion of a 26-year-old me (brimming with a sort of naive wisdom), the biggest enemy to our world is the feeling of disconnection. It is a simple enough occurrence but one that can slip past us without a single whisper. Modern day environments are all conducive to alienating us from our own selves; but the first thing to go is our attachment to the world around us (and not in the way Buddha taught us). We stop listening to the birds chirping in the morning sun (maybe there’s no songbirds hanging around anymore). It doesn’t make sense anymore to dip our feet in the water and watch the surface of a lake glitter under the setting sun. We need some sort of external stimulus all the time from our devices, we can’t really sit alone with our thoughts on our commutes home. We eat fruits and cook dishes that our ancestors had never even heard of, but we don’t stop to ponder that the ingredients were probably grown on the other side of the planet. We take everything for granted - our food, our homes, our environment - so we forget that everything we have has been provided to us, and the Earth’s complex systems work tirelessly to sustain us.

We have broken up with ourselves, and as a consequence

we have broken up with our planet too.

There is way more disbalance than what I’m comfortable with in the current state of the world. Are the complexities of human systems and our planet’s system simply not compatible? Is that what leads to this disconnect - this separation of existence. Surely there is an overlap, parts of these systems that are the same or depend on each other. But being disconnected makes me blind. It makes me immune to deep-rooted issues in the way we live. It makes me forget where I come from and all that I share with the Earth, that I take so much from it without a second thought.

Boston Climate Strike, 2019 (Picture credits: Aashi Sethi)

I like to think of our Earth as a spherical metal ball with cogs and levers, an intricately balanced machine. A complex system. I like to think of myself as a bundle of delicate organs, neural and circulatory networks, thoughts and feelings. Also a complex system. I realize it can also be the other way around, where the Earth is delicate and I’m the machine instead. The Earth needs care and my purpose is to provide that attention to it. My purpose could be to be a cog in the machine that lets my beloved planet conduct its functions. Much in the same way every natural function and cycle on the planet that occurs enables me to breathe, eat, and exist as a lump of thoughts and emotions in my dorm room on a hot April evening typing away at my laptop wondering what to cook for dinner and if I should ever publish this article.

I am far away from home in an 18m² room in a peaceful town of Western Europe. This is where I begin investigating how to repair this relationship.

[Note: This piece contains ramblings from when I’m procrastinating on schoolwork. Posting it on Earth Day feels fitting as well. This is also a personal reflection piece. Criticism is (warily) welcomed. Please do share with me your thoughts and what your perspective is!]