Sylphium. Sylphium. Revered into extinction ... for the greater glory of humankind. Sylphium. I unilaterally proclaim it to be the most appropriate symbol for the maturing Gaian Era -- for lives that will be unequivocably involved in Entangled existences. Socially and environmentally. It is an echo from the past that's worthy to be our beacon -- for an open and enriched future. Here, let me show you what I'm talking about . . .
The plants you see imaged here no longer exist. The coins are from the North African coastal nation of Kyrenia, a culture that thrived 2500 years before us today.
2500 years ago the North African nation-state of Kyrenia placed the images of the sylphium plant on its coins. The plant was the source of medicines, food, and more, socially crucial to the well being of its people. It was so highly prized and sought after that it was thoroughly used up and became extinct and so, not indirectly, did Kyrenia. The only remaining sylphium plants of this genus/species are the images you are looking at on these ancient coins.
Whatever healing powers they might have had are simply memories now. Whatever benefits -- are faded dreams. Lost in the typical lust and selfishness of shortsighted people only concerned with satisfying immediate cravings and willing to let everyone else grovel for themselves - even the future. What was once the corner stone of a human community is now only a vague remorse recalled, if at all, only by interested historians.
There is a lesson here....that CURRENT GLOBAL POLICIES of resource management MUST esteem and value all organic life forms including their habitats and full environment. There is no predicting what life forms--current or undiscovered--will be of benefit for whatever possible reasons, but to wantonly decimate whole species and lifeforms just to satisfy our competitive rush to 'take up space' too easily becomes a form of self destruction, notthe guarantor of survival. And that's something people don't realize when they're involved in the heat of 'winning'. But it becomes too apparent when life sustaining elements aren't there any more.
So let me rephrase the admonition. EVERY PERSON NEEDS TO BE IMBUED WITH THE PERSONAL VALUE POLICY that people's encounters with resources and companion living systems MUST esteem and value all those organic life forms including their native habitats and environment. Because they aren't a distanced "they", but connected and potentially survival important links with "us". Who knows what medical benefits we might have had now if that one plant's very existence hadn't been abused into extinction.
The images on those ancient coins ought to be taken up by every person ever concerned with the future of life and society and social organization as a warning .. that an integrated gaianly economic and ecologic world .. where all resources are protected and secured and systematically renewed .. is the only reasonable viable path of survival. Technology is only as competent as the knowledge base of its designers. And so far, singular gains and bootstrapped achievements haven't satisfactorally compensated for nature's holistic capacities . . . Existence's creative experiments.
The Sylphium needs to be remembered and revered once again ... for what its loss represents to what we can prevent ourselves from squandering. Humanity needs to re-affirm its appreciation for Life, must value and re-dedicate its 'self' preservation as being equal with the preservation of all that Nature is capable of, not just some little narrow piece of it.
There are gifts around us. Gifts too easily squandered in our thirst to appease 'the moment'.
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The elegant Sylphium could be the image to remind us.
