Some final thoughts...

  Marietta, Georgia
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The most obvious comes courtesy of the Ho
Rainforest, which in my opinion is the best example of an ideal
society.  First, it uses all its natural resources, not wasting
anything.  The symbiosis between all the organisms is at a high level 
The forest uses trees that fall or succumb to the elements as parent
trees for the next generation of organisms.    Second, the organisms
that make it a great biosphere do so by adapting their bodies to the
environmental conditions.
So what does that mean for us?  Not the best news.  
As a species we do more consuming than preserving of
resources in a defined area, more like a virus.  Our bodies have
adapted artificially to our current environments but  they need to
evolve for survival sakes  That might change through genetic
manipulation but not because of our DNA reacting on its own accord.  

As a society we do a poor job of recycling our human resources, more
precisely our senior resources.   All that knowledge and experience
just fades way or get shoved into some closed environment, never
allowing the chance for a fertile young mind to absorb what it needs to
grow. 
We have to do a better job of archiving, categorizing and
distributing those experiences tp everyone or else we lose more than
members of our society, we lose our humanity.

I don't want
everyone to think that I see gloom and doom for our species.  During my
travels I ran into some of Ken Burns crew who was shooting a new
documentary about the National Park system.  He refers to the park
systems as America's greatest idea and I think he is dead on. 
Preserving and protecting the species throughout the world is our
responsibility, we are the caretakers of this planet and we need to do
a better a job.  Every person on this planet should have the
opportunity to do what I did, or at least every child.  To see the
Milky Way Galaxy unencumbered by the light pollution, stand on the rim
of the Grand Canyon, view glaciers up close on Mount Ranier or have a
face to face with an elk.

It’s been a wonderful trip. Over 5500
miles of memories to inspire, share and learn from in the long
run-hopefully it won't take another 48 years to have another one.