Hi Jason; trying to catch up on your essays since the New Year by bing-reading! Not the best way to absorb your potent narratives. But at least I'm motivated to read them.
I'm one of the people who need to change. I do care, but do virtually nothing. My past experience in trying to change minds has been de-motivating. I give up on people too easily. Won't suffer fools. Well, if I let that stop me, I'm the fool, I guess.
Thanks, Bob. Well said. We're all wrestling with the same things, though, so don't be hard on yourself. In extraordinary times, being ordinary feels complicated. And we're all ordinary most of the time.
Thanks, Jason, for being such an eloquent agent of change. This is my favorite sentence in your piece - “From the planet’s point of view, there is no difference between a climate denier and someone who understands the problem but does nothing.” Bingo. It’s exactly how I feel when I futility try to enroll more local, registered Democrats here to engage with party efforts to ensure the installment of our values, principles, and outcomes. They believe but do nothing. Worse they corner me in the grocery store to regale me with praise for ‘sticking my neck out’ in such a conservative community, and share how they wish they could do more but are too busy. It is what it is? It is what it shouldn’t be. We bought a hybrid car, and don’t travel as much. We try desperately not to buy/use plastics - unfortunately still a very challenging thing to do as a modern consumer. We recycle our trash, only to learn our dump doesn’t have means to recycle most plastics. As love cultivates in our own respective homes and generates outward, so do these minuscule efforts to thwart global warming, hopefully. I want to think so. It’s giving me a sense of agency. In the time of COVID nothing else much does.
Happy New Year, Paula. Thanks for this, and for all you're doing. It's tough out there, but we'll just keep on keeping on, I guess. And you can't worry too much about the folks who aren't fully on board yet. As Hawken indicates, there's a lot of cultural inertia - from anxiety to disinformation - slowing us all down. There's a spectrum of engagement, and we're all on it somewhere. I really like Hawken's reminder that there are good tipping points as well as bad ones, and the growth of climate-related interest/recognition/motivation is exponential, as is the shift toward cleaner energy. None of it is fast enough, but it's good stuff.
Brilliant, Jason. Beautifully written, rousing and hopeful. I love this personal voice of yours, how skillfully you weave it with the voices of Lopez, Macdonald, Hawken. I am right with you about New Year's being a strange holiday, but the one thing about New Year's that does make some sense to me is the part about making resolutions for change, the sense of turning over a new leaf, wiping the slate clean, starting again. This year I can feel a groping, a surging wave of energy seeking new ways to live on this planet that are not about endless consumption and economic progress. Thank you for this blog which helps all of us find language for this time of great disruption, this time when we must all decide whether to hide under the bed or come out whooping and hollering.
Thanks very much, Kathleen. And thanks for your recent post revitalizing A Christmas Carol for this eco-historical moment. I'd forgotten how happy and egalitarian Scrooge became at the end of the story, even though - in dark, iniquitous, industrial London - that's the story's whole point. I think you're right about the surging wave of interest in a better world. Certainly there are all sorts of cross-currents making for an angry sea, but on we go through all of it toward our destination.
Hi Jason; trying to catch up on your essays since the New Year by bing-reading! Not the best way to absorb your potent narratives. But at least I'm motivated to read them.
I'm one of the people who need to change. I do care, but do virtually nothing. My past experience in trying to change minds has been de-motivating. I give up on people too easily. Won't suffer fools. Well, if I let that stop me, I'm the fool, I guess.
Working on it.
Thanks, Bob. Well said. We're all wrestling with the same things, though, so don't be hard on yourself. In extraordinary times, being ordinary feels complicated. And we're all ordinary most of the time.
Thanks, Jason, for being such an eloquent agent of change. This is my favorite sentence in your piece - “From the planet’s point of view, there is no difference between a climate denier and someone who understands the problem but does nothing.” Bingo. It’s exactly how I feel when I futility try to enroll more local, registered Democrats here to engage with party efforts to ensure the installment of our values, principles, and outcomes. They believe but do nothing. Worse they corner me in the grocery store to regale me with praise for ‘sticking my neck out’ in such a conservative community, and share how they wish they could do more but are too busy. It is what it is? It is what it shouldn’t be. We bought a hybrid car, and don’t travel as much. We try desperately not to buy/use plastics - unfortunately still a very challenging thing to do as a modern consumer. We recycle our trash, only to learn our dump doesn’t have means to recycle most plastics. As love cultivates in our own respective homes and generates outward, so do these minuscule efforts to thwart global warming, hopefully. I want to think so. It’s giving me a sense of agency. In the time of COVID nothing else much does.
Happy New Year, Paula. Thanks for this, and for all you're doing. It's tough out there, but we'll just keep on keeping on, I guess. And you can't worry too much about the folks who aren't fully on board yet. As Hawken indicates, there's a lot of cultural inertia - from anxiety to disinformation - slowing us all down. There's a spectrum of engagement, and we're all on it somewhere. I really like Hawken's reminder that there are good tipping points as well as bad ones, and the growth of climate-related interest/recognition/motivation is exponential, as is the shift toward cleaner energy. None of it is fast enough, but it's good stuff.
Brilliant, Jason. Beautifully written, rousing and hopeful. I love this personal voice of yours, how skillfully you weave it with the voices of Lopez, Macdonald, Hawken. I am right with you about New Year's being a strange holiday, but the one thing about New Year's that does make some sense to me is the part about making resolutions for change, the sense of turning over a new leaf, wiping the slate clean, starting again. This year I can feel a groping, a surging wave of energy seeking new ways to live on this planet that are not about endless consumption and economic progress. Thank you for this blog which helps all of us find language for this time of great disruption, this time when we must all decide whether to hide under the bed or come out whooping and hollering.
Thanks very much, Kathleen. And thanks for your recent post revitalizing A Christmas Carol for this eco-historical moment. I'd forgotten how happy and egalitarian Scrooge became at the end of the story, even though - in dark, iniquitous, industrial London - that's the story's whole point. I think you're right about the surging wave of interest in a better world. Certainly there are all sorts of cross-currents making for an angry sea, but on we go through all of it toward our destination.