"SOS" ~ A New TV Series!
Imagine if we each starting caring and devoting ourselves like we do in following a popular TV series of Game of Thrones or The Sopranos, into what is giving us our literal breath and the ability to live our lives? Both are created, both deeply moving, and both affecting our collective connection of reality. Yet all the benefits of that same joie de vivre begins fueling our living reality, instead of just staying in fiction.
Imagine applying that weekly “dedication” and passion towards reducing our consumption of single-use plastics, cleaning up the discarded fishing lines and netting, changing our household pollutants, pesticides, and fertilizers (used in farming, golf courses, and at home), ending the use of harmful sunscreens we are wearing that are daily suffocating the reefs and ocean ecosystems, eliminating trash and cigarette butts littering the beaches. We each have that choice, to be a game changer in our “never-ending story”… or not allowing our own hero character to come into life!
Over the past five years in Hawaii, I’ve been experiencing and seaing first hand the rapid loss of biodiversity, coral reefs bleaching, endless broken pieces of sea anemones, and the friends I used to swim with under the seas like spotted eagle rays disappearing. This may be out of sight from your vision, yet the truth of this reality is hitting home, our planet, and into our hearts whether we live near the coastline or not, “out of sight, out of mind.”
Our planet is designed in it’s very Nature to be interconnected, so we and each other are part of this amazing life connection and story.
Our life series is called “SOS” - Save Our Selves, Save Our Species, Save Our Souls, which ultimately, Saves our Stories. How? By applying into action the saying that was popularized by US president Harry Truman.
"The buck stops here!"
As Wiktionary explains, this phrase is based on the metaphorical expression passing the buck, derived from poker gameplay, that came to mean "passing blame," or absolving oneself of responsibility or concern by denying authority or jurisdiction over a given matter.
Let’s just take one thing to be concerned about. The coral reefs. To most people, they’re literally unknown, especially their identity as an animal and their major role in our lives, down to the very breath we are breathing. Yet, if we were to put coral reefs in ‘monetary terms’, they are our smallest investment with the biggest return.
The story behind “coral reefs and us” is a beautiful and symbiotic relationship. Many answers to the precious series we are sharing can be shown by understanding the life between a coral animal and the plant planton, phytoplankton. http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/coralreef.html
Again, why is this relationship so important to us?
Corals give us and the world a chance to breathe, live, survive, and thrive. Without the reefs’ essential ecosystems, you and I, along with millions of other species suffer beyond measure. So, right now the ocean is sending us a big SOS! Brief backstory: symbiotic relationships come in 3 types: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.
Mutualism is where both partners benefit… like the coral and the phytoplankton, or the times during snorkeling when I sea a crab moving around with a reef fish (cleaning/food foraging.)
Commensalism is when only one species benefits, while the other is neither helped nor harmed… crabs and fish using empty shells to live in for homes, especially in the winter months.
Parasitism is when one organism (the parasite) gains, while the other (the host) suffers.
In this last category, many animal species become “parasites” during a stage in their life, yet in Nature if that parasite kills their host, their chance of dying is interconnected with the same fate. Hence symbiotic, and a metaphor of how our humanly actions have been and are gravely affecting our fragile ecosystems; breaking down the crucial biodiversity on our home, which is touching every aspect of our daily lives.
This SOS is our wake up call to begin reducing and stopping our engagement into being a “parasite,” meaning hurting our host, Mother Earth for our momentary desires and fleeting gains.
Choices
Simple choices at home: replacing cleaning brands with biodegradable products. All detergents and soaps go down the drain into the waterways, and eventually find their wave down to the sea.
Simple choices at work: bringing your reusable containers, cups, and straws for food, togo coffee, and drinks. Why not start a fashion trend or be the first in creating a movement? If not now, then when?
Simple choices at play: using reef-safe sunscreens at the beach, as well as all rivers and lakes. Turn one of your passions, like art or music into a contest or show, helping other with awareness of environmental issues.
Here’s one NOW, OPEN TO ALL TO ENTER! https://www.dolphingirl.org/aloha-awareness
Remembering, that everything returns back into the bigger waters, our ocean, as well as cycling back with us and all the life and people we love.
Who knows, maybe this SOS calling is a love-story from the planet back to us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvChjHcABPA, mahalo Abba daring!