Metaphors possess more authority with them than data. These are people who possess a perceptual grasp about the abiding unity of nature because, unlike many politicians and all scientists, they do not attempt to stand outside their subject. Not bringing a shopping list to the task, they comprehend the key difference between nature and natural resources. I am suggesting that the culture's relationship to nature will improve dramatically on the day that Senate subcommittees about land use start consulting with these people as a matter of course. Actually, modern Western culture may be unique in not already doing so.
Future generations suffer because of it.
Everything about our culture recommends that the seventh generation does not actually exist. I would suggest, instead, that they do exist, but for the moment, they remain incapable of doing much of anything on their own behalf. Perhaps we can give them more substance by granting them a story. In this story, they are singing at our doorway like carolers on Christmas eve. They are singing that we may hear them, that we may undertake the monumental task of changing the way we perceive them.