In her book Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature, Kathleen Dean Moore writes of a time when a friend questioned her, "What will Earth lose, when it loses human beings?" After consideration, she realized that humans have a level of awareness that other animals don't have. She realized many animals display evidence of joy and playfulness, and the earth is full of music, the vibrations going out forever.
She writes that she realized that without humans, Earth loses, "Not just joy, but the awareness of joy. Not just music, but that swelling response to music, the way it opens the heart. Humans are Earth's way of knowing itself. With the tongue of a human being, Earth tastes itself. In a human's search for meaning, it comes to know its own mysteries. In a human's loving attention, Earth rejoices in its own beauty. It's one thing to be. It's quite another to know that and to pronounce it good. This is what a human brings to the world-- the ability to take notice, to be grateful and glad, glad for the river swinging by, for the sun warming my shoulders, for the breeze lifting the hairs on a butterfly's back."
(Kathleen Dean Moore. Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature. Trumpeter Books, Boston, MA. 2010. 159.)
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