Words of Wisdom from an Earth-Loving Canadian
Witnessing the rising contempt for the values I deem sacrosanct, and the dismantling of institutions that we, the People, charged to uphold them, devastates me. And that’s an understatement of the “the Titanic went a bit off course” variety. How about you?
Good thing I’ve practiced up for moments like these. When something as simple as finding a phone book on your doorstep sends you into a white-hot rage, a mindfulness practice is as essential as a can of spinach is for Popeye the Sailor’s courage.
Translation for younger folks: “… a mindfulness practice is as essential as Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, is for unlocking his super powers.”
I believe I even wrote a book, Love Earth Now, about laying a strong personal foundation for weathering the storms — both physical and metaphorical.
When I find myself shaking with white-hot rage, which now happens about as frequently as I pee (often), I lean into my meditation and prayer practice even more. I attack the elliptical machine at the gym with a fervor I usually reserve for cheese dip at a Superbowl party. And I reach out to like-hearted friends, desperate to remember that I am not alone in despairing the gleeful infliction of violence on marginalized people, as well as the natural environment that sustains Life as We Know It.
I closed a recent email with this flippant question:
“The terrors and tragedies are piling up. I have to work twice as hard to keep myself believing we can turn this runaway train around. Some days, I am not so successful. How are you feeling about our chances?”
Here’s the sort of reply I expected: “Not good! LOL. Just keep praying / meditating / protesting / gardening / organizing / moving . . . “ or some combination of the trite-and-true pablum we dole out for navigating any crisis these days.
I received a far greater gift in this deeply-considered response from Canadian Heather McLeod, the host of the Something Different Comes This Way podcast and co-founder of the Northwest (Ontario) Climate Gathering. When I asked for permission to share it, Heather replied, “I stand behind it, unpolished as it is.”
“How am I feeling about our chances? I think the chances that humanity will emerge different, tested and transformed but still a part of this planet within the next seven generations is excellent. I think that life as a whole on this planet will also survive, decimated but able as ever to rebuild anew and repopulate. Worst case the new world won’t include humans within those seven human generations, but I think it unlikely humans will decimate more of the restorative power of life on this planet than any previous extinction from which it has rebounded. So if the ‘our’ you’re asking about is our species, I’d give us good odds. They are still odds, and winning them will require societal and systemic transformation only now imagined and then by only a few – but they are good odds.
How am I feeling about our chances of riding through today’s terrors and tragedies entertained by rather than directly touched by them? Maybe if you die with your blinkers on really, really soon you could manage to maintain an assumption that the Climate Crisis is a challenge for a future era, nothing more than a news item for you personally. But within a countable number of heartbeats, none will be able to avoid the personal and pressing fact that this time of change is upon us already. Right, my LA fires surviving friend?
As your country’s next door neighbour, fretting as I gaze South over our long unprotected shared border at the raw push to oppress, to excise the power and autonomy of citizenship, democracy and community being aggressively realized under a smoke screen of distracting impossible and provocative declarations, I think the odds of the US retaining its freedom, dignity and social securities don’t look good so far. I am not alone in praying for a great uprising outside the gates of Federal power and a quiet uprising within every opportunity to foil and defray this push.
Because simply worrying and raising concerns will not suffice. Without swift and united action (in an alarmingly divided society) I think you will go from first world power to third world as quickly as Argentina in the 1990s. I just hope my children won’t have to go to war to protect our border from your soldiers.
Hitler dismantled Germany’s democracy within six months of his election. This is a colonial claw back intending to colonize all but the wee club of ultra-wealthy white men Trump thinks he is leading. Yes, that’s what this looks like from here. I am terrified and determined not to be sucked into your fray (says the little boat on the lip of the mighty whirlpool).
Back to ‘our’ chances, inclusive of those outside the US. I think the net zero 2050 goals were predicated on a best-case scenario of climactic change that has proven overly optimistic. And we are underachieving the prescribed solutions built on that underestimation. Our current infrastructures, pro-active and re-active emergency response systems and future planning are not built for the climate we now have, mind you the one we’ve already cooked into the remaining years of our own lifetimes. The Crisis is now. And the response is thin, uncertain and slow. We are behind in a race we are still debating whether or not we need to run in to win.
So I think we’ll be forced to get practical soon, focus on housing and water, feeding and educating, weather-adaptive infrastructure, trouble-shooting and locally autonomous capacity to get those key things done. That’s a transformation of focus and values that I think surfaces naturally in a local crisis. And I think we’re all going to have our turn at surviving a local climate-rooted crisis in the near future. They could devastate us, and the prospect of them is devastating.
But I think we will (mostly) survive. Which takes know-your-neighbour level collaboration, and in-person, feet-on-the-ground action. The key benefits I see from beyond the local are supply-chain and information, and those could transition to less-needed given time. In other words, we will mostly save ourselves. I think we surprise ourselves when the crisis actually hits with how well we come through.
I think of the opening chapters of HumanKind by Rutger Bregman when he contrasts the intention of the bombing of civilians by both sides in the Second World War – the elite running that war expected to break society with terror and loss as people died and neighbourhoods destroyed. And the actual impact: people were heroic, stoic, collaborative, innovative and resilient. They carried on. Universally. The elite overlords are blind to the true power and nature of people, and the elite have been telling the story of us for too long. We need more storytelling from the frontlines, the workers rather than the owners reflecting back the humanity they experience first hand (rather than the assumptions of inhumanity and incapacity that excuse great inequities of power).
It is in the interest of inertia (letting the owners keep dominating our attention and benefiting from the current inequities) that we are talking too much about giving up on one another based on our assumptions of insufficiency. I just wish we could get to doing more of what needs doing before the next peak of this global crisis hits the next community of homes and daily lives. We know what to do. Little of it is Federal. Almost all of it happens somewhere specific aka is local. And requires no remarkable skills or training. Grow Food. Clean up. Take care of one another. Teach. Learn. Help. Heal. Get to know your neighbours. Problem-solve with what you have. Stop getting distracted by the bullies and the liars.
That’s the crux that will turn us from wobbling at the brink as the shit-storm compounds, worried and afraid, to wading through to new, busy and empowered to help. Problem solve with what you have. Don’t let the perfect impede improvement.
In my opinion, in the US, the action I would prioritize right now is finding every opportunity to put the right people into decision making roles starting at the most modest of local levels, from showing up to public consults to running for boards and local offices, committees and associations. Then speaking up with proposals for achievable action and giving things a go with what you have (because we can’t afford to wait for what would be better or fairer or easier, but isn’t yet in hand). That’s an action worth doing everywhere.
But in the States my understanding is that the ‘republican’ dismantlers have systematically and strategically taken those roles in recent years. I think now those who want to help need to unseat those destructive people from those roles and give the work to builders and problem solvers.
That and protect your values and your democracy with everything you’ve got. Don’t let the smokescreen distract you from the efforts to dismantle your country’s pillars of greatness. But enough of my wishes for your country. Your losses are always felt this side of the border, personally as well as empathetically.
We’ve got our own pillars to protect over here. The forces so stridently shaking up things there are sliding into place to do the same in Canada. We are so very colonial in our structures and dependencies, more so than you, which counters our capacities with significant vulnerabilities. And we are so very distracted by the bullies and the liars.
That’s how I’m feeling about our chances.
Our chances are ours to realize, or regret.
Warmly,
H”
There’s so much here that I need some time to process it all, but a few things leapt out at me, like free books at a yard sale.
This made me sob out loud: “I just hope my children won’t have to go to war to protect our border from your soldiers.” Dear God, please let us not come to bloodshed with our longtime Canadian allies.
Secondly, this: “the elite have been telling the story of us for too long. We need more storytelling from the frontlines, the workers rather than the owners reflecting back the humanity they experience . . .” Even though I may be despairing, this is no time to give up writing. We must all share our true stories, our experiences, our humanity, now more than ever.
Thirdly: “We know what to do. Little of it is Federal. Almost all of it happens somewhere specific aka is local. And requires no remarkable skills or training. Grow Food. Clean up. Take care of one another. . .” This urges me to keep on nurturing my local community. Keep on showing up to meetings of the local Democratic club. Keep on gardening. Things I (mostly) know how to do. What a relief.
Finally, “stop getting distracted by bullies and liars.” This one challenges me most of all, but the most vital ones always do. If someone asked me today, “are you willing to allow the bullies to steal your hope, your faith, your joy because someone signed a piece of paper?” My answer would be largely unprintable, but would end in “NO.”
Thank you for giving me so much to ponder, Heather.
What did YOU get from reading Heather’s reply?
