A snapshot of Rainbow Ridge in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

Dear World,

It was such a pleasure to hang out with you this March in Nevada. I hope we can do it again someday. I do, however, have to apologize. And you’ll have to excuse my friends of the human race, too. You’ve given me everything I could have dreamed of for 22 years and I’m starting to realize that this is a very take-take relationship. While you’ve been so patient with me, I’d like to tell you that I’m through with this. Meaning that from now on I’m going to try to make it a give-and-take relationship.

I could never provide for you everything you’ve give to me: fresh water, sunshine, food, habitat, energy, wood, paper, electricity, brilliant beaches, awe-inspiring mountains, a fascinating array of species… I could go on. But I could certainly start by conserving and appreciating the things that you’ve given me and I can promise to try to improve the habits of my fellow humans. We can plant trees and conserve your valuable and unsustainable resources, be more civil to one another and avoid destructive wars, raise a generation that can treat you better than we did, use products that do less damage to your beautiful surfaces, and slow the spread of dangerous disease across the world.

While we could never repay you for, uh, life as we know it, we can try to slow our selfish damage to you so that hopefully many more generations of humans can live on to help, too. With that, I hope that you can accept my long-overdue apology. And I’ll work on upholding my end of the deal.

I hope to see you again very soon.

With love,

Cari