Looking toward the future...

I took this pic last night, sitting at the channel. My husband and I watched dozens and dozens of dolphins jumping and swimming near shrimp boats that came in and anchored for the night in the channel. If you look closely you can see one mother dolphin with a young one surfacing.
I watched Avatar two evenings ago, after we received it from Netflix. Great film obviously for the special effects, but also for the story. Humans have done so much to ruin this beautiful world of ours, through ignorance and greed, but I like to believe that we can salvage it.
I've been thinking about the recent high school graduates, since my son has a number of friends who graduated this year. As a teacher and parent, my wish for young people is that they connect in a very real way with the natural world and people around them. That which you have heard, seen and experienced first hand becomes important to you, and worth fighting for.
When I heard the comment made by the BP CEO about "wanting his life back," I understood that for him, the Gulf of Mexico and the people who live there don't really matter; probably, like many people, the natural world doesn't really matter to him in any concrete way. If you have stood at the ocean's edge, watching dolphins leap and pelicans dive, or wandered mossy, verdant paths through mountain forests, watching deer graze and chipmunks scamper, then those living things really, truly matter. I'm treasuring these days at home near the ocean, looking foward to a summer trip to the mountains, and hoping for a better future for our natural world.