A Pathetic Apology To Our Grandchildren

Dear future generations,

Many of us older folks realize we have done lots of serious damage to the planet you and your offspring will inherit. Under our watch, rivers and oceans have become polluted, the earth's  soils, vegetation and other forms of life depleted and contaminated, and its atmosphere dangerously poisoned and overheated.

We realize good planets are hard to find, and we didn't do this with any intention of harming you or keeping you from enjoying the good life we've been able to have here during our brief stay. Please understand we were simply looking out for our own interests, looking for all the ways possible to live as comfortably, conveniently and well-off as we felt entitled to.

Looking back, we realize we could and should have been able to live with homes and lawns half as large and which would have required far less energy and other resources to maintain. We could have used half the amount of fuel consumed by our many miles of travel in our SUV's and RV's, and been content with half the foods transported from all over the world to satisfy our palates. We could have availed ourselves of more of what we could have been producing and using locally and in season.

But our being able to experience all of this Mammon-sourced comfort, convenience, and conspicuous consumption proved to be a temptation just too great to resist, even though we meant no harm, really we didn't.

Maybe our best excuse for all this is that we simply became addicted to hoarding more and more stuff. We became hooked on having walk-in closets full of more clothes and shoes than we could possibly wear, having freezers, pantries and refrigerators full of far more food than we needed, and two-car garages with late model vehicles with all the latest accessories. We became as addicted to the lifestyle of the wealthiest 3-5% of the world's inhabitants as some people become dependent on alcohol or crack cocaine.

And we found ourselves unable or unwilling to find a cure.

So please try to understand. And meanwhile we hope you'll be OK in spite of our leaving your earth home in such a mess. I guess we figured everything was in God's hands, and if things got too bad Jesus would surely step in and rapture everyone away to a better place, somewhere where there would be no human-caused pollution or devastation to worry about.

Really, that's what we assumed would happen.

So mea culpa. God have mercy. Christ have mercy.