How about an ecological selfie?

Step aside National Selfie Day, we are introducing Global Ecological Selfie Day.

Maybe you missed it. Hopefully you did. But National Selfie Day came and went on June 21,
ironically just before the solstice. Apparently it went viral so that some started calling it World Selfie
Day (and giving banal advice about how to perfect it). That's correct, an international day setup to
honour something many people do compulsively every day anyway.

It's like announcing the International Day of Checking Myself in the Mirror. Would that go viral?

I know it is the age of narcissism but I was still confused as to the point of it all. So I went to the official website in search of more insight. You know, to get the real vision behind this curious concept. The creators of National Selfie Day didn't disappoint with their lofty and lucid ambitions saying:

We want the world to experience, and take selfies, and have fun !
How far can we take this? The sky is the limit !!!

I am not even sure the first sentence makes sense, let alone defining what makes the day worth commemorating. It appears they want us to experience (which we do every moment in life whether we like it or not) and have fun. I can think of a zillion ways to have fun without needing to invoke a selfie. But it seems we don't have fun these days until someone else sees it canned and captured.

But saying "we want the world to experience" is indeed an interesting idea. Obviously, "the world" includes much more than humans so maybe these advocates are actually offering an invitation to Gaia – as one conscious organism – to reflect on its experience as earth.

Now, that is profound.

If Mother Earth took a selfie, what would that look like? Which face would she show? Which is her best angle? The side with the sprawling cities and pollution? Or the side with intact forest and gushing mountain rivers?

Would she take an up-closie? Or would that be too revealing? Maybe she would just ask NASA for a distant selfie because she feels she looks unblemished and feels more wholesome that way. And, after all, the proponents of National Selfie Day did say that "The sky is the limit."

And how about a Global Ecological Selfie Day? Would that catch on?

An "ecological self" is a deep ecology concept that broadens our sense of identity to include non-human nature and concerns about the biosphere. It is the extent to which we include "nature" within our sense of "self" and are able to readily identify with that.

It involves the dissolution of imagined boundaries to find a common essence between our self, nature, and others. It goes beyond ego and anthropocentrism (i.e. human concerns as the exclusive source of all value) to deliver a positive emotional experience of relatedness beyond our own self.

We should create more ecological selfies.

We should do it in the most expressive way possible. We should nominate the day as being the polarity of World Selfie Day. So let's make the solstice of December 21st Global Ecological Selfie Day – the day that our ancestors have been especially worshipping earth and the whole cosmos for thousands of years.

Keeping in line with the National Selfie Day call to action, at Global Ecological Selfie Day:

We want the world to deeply experience their ecological selfies, and have meaningful fun !
How far can we take this? This interconnected earth is the limit !!!