Symbiosis

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Today I visited a friend who lives in Ojców National Park. A beautiful spot just outside of Kraków. I live near it too - it's been the destination of many of my bike rides and walks.

We went on a hike to see the surroundings. At one point, we were standing on one slope of a small valley, while on the other, fourteen or so wild boars were passing. Such an interesting experience. Thankfully, they didn't notice us, and continued to march to their destination.

It reminded me of this scene from Princess Mononoke. A true masterpiece - only watched it recently, it was really touching.

During this hike I remember saying: "oh, didn't know there were houses here" a few times. It's not like that bugged me much, but I noticed how the forest was closely surrounded by humans from all sides.

Princess Mononoke touches on environmentalism, on the struggle between humans and nature. Our relentless growth has required, thus far, using nature. More like abusing, ha. Certainly, it has not been an equal transaction; we took more than we gave.

But we know well that unsustainable processes don't guarantee any longevity. Even if we look at this problem from a very egoistic point of view - longevity should be an important concern. Even if we don't care about nature for sake of nature, we should care about it for sake of us. Our survival, our permanence. Our legacy.

Total symbiosis is, of course, unattainable at this point. We'd have to holistically rebuild our minds (and they're toughest to rebuild). But we must, even if for our own sake, try. Work towards symbiosis through at least showing respect.

Let the boars go their way.