Presently, my office is a little cubicle in the back of the MEC. Before I moved in there, the room had been occupied by someone who was an avid collector of things to tack on the walls. This suited me just fine, as I love to create walls by tacking up bits of this and that, too. During the years of my occupancy, the walls have changed, but I have kept a number of items which were tacked up by my predecessor. Not the least of these is a small scrap of paper which simply reads, "They who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music."
Do you ever wonder why someone decides to join the MEC? I do. The last time I checked with a credible source, the County of Mendocino now sports a population of some 90,000 people. The MEC, by contrast, has about 1,000 members, and the bulk of them live in Mendocino County. To me, that's an amazing ratio. That's one person out of every ninety who has decided to join the MEC. To look at it another way, that's one and one-tenth percent of the population. Why? Why not half? Why not three-quarters? Why not ten percent at least?
I think about these things. I realize that there is such a thing as "different strokes for different folks," but I don't think that's really the answer. I've wrestled with the question for so long now that maybe it's driving me a little crazy. Crazy or not, I've lately come to think that it might have something to do with hearing the cry of wilderness. For those of us who hear it, this cry is like music. It's a primeval vibration and rhythm emanating as much from within us as without; a song to which we cannot help but dance. Can it be that there are so few of us who hear this ancient song? Is that why so few people join the MEC?
That would be very hard, indeed, to believe. Yet, look at what's happening to the world: ocean, land and sky polluted; forests and fisheries depleted; wild lands vanishing; rate of species extinction increasing; development spreading; fresh water in ever shorter supply; speculation about global warming, ozone holes, climate changes; and on and on. Environmental destruction and degradation marches slowly, but steadily, on with no stopping point in sight. It marches on for the sake of progress, for the sake of money, and for the sake of the never-ending desire for more. Would this be possible if most people could hear the cry of wilderness?
Ultimately, the question has no clear answer. One thing is clear, though. Those of us who join the MEC are not only concerned about clean air and water, abundant fisheries and forests, and about environmental degradation in general; but we are also willing to do what we can to help make things better. Perhaps we will never have tremendous strength in numbers. No matter. At least we will have the comfort of knowing that even if five billion people all do a stupid thing, it's still a stupid thing.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited