in·dig·e·nous [in díjjənəss]adj

1.  belonging to a place: originating in and naturally living, growing, or occurring in a region or country 

2.  natural: natural or inborn (formal) 

[Mid-17th century. < Latin indigena , literally "born in" < gignere "beget"] -in·di·gen·i·ty [ìndi jénnətee], , n -in·dig·e·nous·ly, , adv Word Key: Synonyms        See native.

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

As defined above and given our current populous…it would seem as though we have reached a point of saturation where we would either be all inclusive to or 99.8% disqualified from fitting the definition.  I guess the either/or element would depend on what you see as being the most active portion of the definition, the “belonging…” or the “naturally…”.   Understanding that I am not living as “naturally” as I would otherwise now choose for myself, I would lean toward the emphasis being on the word “naturally” as a disqualifier to the greater majority of us currently existing in this populous.  However, I do consider myself indigenous to this planet, therefore, I must go with the first portion of  “belonging…”, in order to classify myself as “an indigenous human being”.   And to avoid misunderstandings, if I am assigning earth as the “place“, so too, am I assigning every human upon her the classification of  being  “an indigenous human being“.

Even still, in just this much of the definition alone, “belonging to a place”, when I chew on just this much of the definition, I find that there is a great deal of humility within my classification.  For I belong to this planet, earth.  This planet does not belong to me.  I’m not sure about the rest of the populous that I am sharing space and time with, but the fact that I would belong to this planet takes the ego right out of the scenario I’m in.  Does it do the same for you?   This classification of belonging to a place, gives that place possession/keeping of the one belonging, and absolutely I have found myself at the mercy of earth’s various atmospheric and environmental activities.  My life has been most certainly governed by, at times, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, and lets not forget gravity as the constant.   This place/planet certainly lets me know that I am not capable of surmounting the power of those events and forces, that I can only exist within them, if shown the mercy and having the sense to do so.  So far I have managed to refrain from looking up during a rain storm and have exceeded the survival rate of a turkey out in that same rain.    All of these natural laws have been demonstrated to me and yet…“What have I done for her lately?”… is really about all I can ask myself when keeping true to the knowledge that I am not living  as naturally as I wish to be.  I have not lived  as “in-line” with being of good help to this planet as I could be…though that is changing in an amazing way.    More to be revealed on that note, I’m sure of it as this writing is just the start.