Dear Bunununus Bibi,
This is a silly name I used for your mother when she was my own little toddler. She was so adorably chubby and stumbled around on her busy little legs getting into all sorts of trouble, I would snatch her out of danger, bury my lips in the nape of her neck where she was most ticklish and blow while calling her my little bunununus bibi. She giggled and squealed as I wouldn’t let up, kicking those legs in mid-air.
Placing her back on her feet, I often wondered what kind of world was she going to inhabit when I wasn’t around to watch her anymore.
Instinctively, she loved life and I loved watching her. But I knew it was a cruel world. The longer I lived, the crueler it became. I wondered how we evolved to such heights of cruelty as human beings when, were we to become extinct, who would the survivors share their world with?
It appears to me that the sense of rugged individualism and ambition deprives us of humanity. Not many people in my generation seem to think about their neighbors, or families for that matter. This breeds a craven sensibility that drives acts of greed. There can be no other answer in my estimation that explains why there is a relentless drive to destroy the very things that gave us life and sustains us.
Today, October 25, 2020 there are approximately 54 actively large wild fires burning in the United States. There are hundreds more burning all over the world, adding to the CO2 in the atmosphere instead of absorbing them. These are added to the numerous other methods that we are using to add to the warming of the climate.
Your mother and I talk about these events. She feels burdened by it all and vows that she does not want to add to a large carbon footprint. She barely wants to leave home as the only impact she wants to make on the world she says, is with her art.
This means that I am holding onto Faith, her middle name, that you will be part of her future and that she will have a future in this burning world.
In 2050, if I am lucky, I will be my living mother’s age. I hope you will breathe cleaner air, enjoy a freedom of movement that will be propelled by your own body’s effort. Skateboards or wind propelled scooters should replace the cars of the day. That is what your mother wants. Plastic and aluminum will be relics of the past and more sustainable materials will take their place.
Solar energy will be on tap as we would have learned how to effectively harness the warming climate and reuse it sustain our needs.
People will become more considerate as they will learn that it is only through our interdependence that we will survive. Money will have lost its value and bartering will be the currency of the day. Each person will then be valued for their own individual contribution to the whole community rather than for the amount of wealth they can grab and parlay into more.
Fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and other weather events will become less frequent as Mother Nature will be calmed by the efforts humankind has engaged to make the world a more caring place.
I hope to hold your hand and see your single dimple as you read about the world your own mother used to inhabit.
I cannot wait to meet you in that new world — Bunununus Bibi.
