Closets are indispensably useful things. They hide our stuff, holding it well out of sight. They keep the floors and surfaces clear and orderly, even if in their darkened depths they overflow with our unwanted clutter. They call no attention to themselves, do not demand to be tended to or cared for. They disappear into the walls, their doors becoming almost invisible unless we choose to adorn them. If not ill-treated, they generally do not leak their contents into the open air; they tell no tales; they protect our confidences. We can usually expect that when we put something away, it will stay there, inert, secure, static.
Not so with nature. There are no such closets in nature. There is no "there" there; no place we can safely stuff our unwanted detritus and walk away, secure that nature will hold our trash in confidence and safety. Carbon sequestration, burial of spent uranium, municipal landfills, all must be put in "closets" which have the potential to leak; which must be monitored, cared for and tended to, demanding funding just so we can be certain they won't misbehave.
Imagine, then, if we had to live in a house without closets, in the presence of all the stuff we had, new, aborning and used. Nowhere to escape our stuff. That, in a way, is how we live in the world.
Would that change the way we chose to live?
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