Well, I'm back from my cruise and

[NNadir]

26. I have never been on a cruise, and never will be on one most probably, but to me, I don't have to go anywhere to be...

...aware of the orgy of consumption that is killing our planet.

I'm not entirely sure that Americans are alone in this approach to killing the planet.

I work with a lot of Indian Americans, Hindus, who love to refer, with distain, to "Maya," but are nonetheless into big time material consumption. Most of their lives strike me as efforts to get into a BMW or Mercedes.

I will plainly confess that I am not immune myself. I'm an atheist, not a Hindu, but I'm not above sinking into Maya of my own. I cannot avoid my hypocrisy.

I suspect - I know - I have problems in my genome that lead to addictive behaviors, and I monitor them. I can and do drink alcohol on occasion, but I have to carefully watch myself, despite having a high tolerance to ethanol.

In any case, history will not forgive us, nor should it.