In your view, what life stage is the human family in?

Hmmm.  I don't think I can generalize about this.  Some of us are still in our terrible twos, throwing temper tantrums if we don't get what we want, not caring if our mother earth is way beyond exhausted, demanding more and more and more of her.  Some of us are simply soaking up everything we can, learning and learning and learning more.  Some of us are trying to figure out humanity's identity and purpose and experiencing the confusion of the teenage years.  Some of us are still in our 20's either trying to figure out what our parents did wrong to make us this way or finally letting go of parental blame or parental hero worship.  Some of us are just busy taking care of our little humanity family.  Some of us have grown our generousity into caring for our whole community our whole world and realizing that without the larger community of our interconnected world or ecosystems and gaia our little humanity family and our little selves can't survive at all.  I think as a whole-- 6 point how-many-now? billion of us-- well I don't think I can generalize about that.  I have no real idea how many are in what stage.

Sometimes I like to think about all of us humans and plants and animals like cells in the body of the organism earth.  I couldn't tell you if the cells in my feet are more mature than the cells in my heart.  Rather, they each have their own purpose and if each does it's own thing well, the organism functions beautifully.  But if my heart muscles tried to do the job of the feet muscles and abandoned their own purpose, I'd be in dire straights.  Or if my body ends up with too many fat cells or not enough red blood cells or any number of imbalances that can happen, then again, the organism that is me gets distressed. 

So, I don't know about the life stage part, but we do seem to be a bit unhealthy, out of balance within the greater scheme of things.  I'd like us to find some discipline in terms of consumption and balance in terms of numbers and maybe we should stop trying to do the job of other cells.  We should let the trees do their job and the ozone do it's job and the water aquifers do their job, etc.

Hmmm....  what if the cells in the human body had to run for office in order to get elected and decide who would do what job in the body.  that would be a kind of funny movie?  

This photo is from the wedding I photographed last weekend.