by hope and optimism
sleepless for hours last night, with churning thoughts and emotions, including despair and anger and tears, over the tragedies in Japan as well as the messages in the Suzuki film (see previous post)
sitting in the dark with only the monitor’s light and a cup of hot cocoa and typing somewhat incoherent thoughts into a list seemed to help ease a grandmother’s pain
later, in the light of another grey morning, after weeks of grey days of heavy heavy rains and thunderstorms, I read the list and decide to leave it barely edited. it’s not saying anything new nor is it poetry so don’t be too hard on me….
we need hope and optimism
especially for all our children
traumatized or not
as parents and grandparents (even Suzuki is one)
nurture, nature, healing
in gardening, in the presence of nature
spring’s promise, fall’s harvest
like Suzuki, I identify with first nations’ and early peoples nature ‘worship’,
thanking the earth for providing
save the forests
reduce depletion of fish
organic farming
not factory farming of plants or animals or fish
without chemicals on land or sea
no GMOs
grow food close to home, save agricultural lands from development
backyard gardens, chickens, composting
clean potable water
not wasted on golf courses and ‘retirement’ homes in the deserts
need massive change fast,
time is running out for our planet!
reduce consumption and waste
no more nuclear!
drastically reduce dependance on oil, coal
reduce plastics
increase solar, wind, geothermal, wave energy
mass transit, bikes, trains
(building them will provide jobs – look at Germany and Denmark!)
less travel, fewer planes, cars, cleaner ships
change philosophy of constant growth, constant focus on shares and profits at all human and environmental costs
(isn’t it disgusting that Japan’s disasters only make Wall Street types worry about stock market drops?! – where’s the compassion?)
and how come Haiti and New Orleans and Aceh and so many ‘poor’ places are still struggling to recover from natural disasters while more money is quickly made available to wealthy nations – is it because business and corporations see profits in rebuilding in industrial nations – again the corporate bottom line, not the human line???
Now I need to somehow make some art to heal some of the heartache since it’s too wet and cold to go start some seeds….
Later: Please read this, a calm, reasonable, intelligent voice in the wilderness and madness of CNN style reporting: What Japan’s nuclear crisis means for all of us
March 16, 2011 in Current Events, Environment by Marja-Leena
Jerry and I talk about these things endlessly. We always end up at the same place. Sadly, there are just too many people. We must figure out a way to control population if we are ever to solve these problems. They all really come from the same source: exploding population.
Yes, when you stay up in the night worrying about the state of the world it’s time to make art!
Anne, yes! Suzuki made a big point about too many humans on this earth – thanks for reminding me to add that to my list of worries 🙂 Now, I think I’m going to have that nap, early…
Marja-Leena, I share all the concerns you list here. I love you for having a big heart and so much compassion. but I also have severe qualms about the bombardment of information and what we are supposed to do with it – doesn’t it lead all to easily to despair and inaction? And what’s the point of that?
After much thought and some difficult, useful conversations, I’ve come around to thinking that we just have to bring our attention back after a while to our own more immediate environment – not to shut off from the rest, and we probably don’t have that option anyway, but to bring our attention back to what we CAN do, be that giving money or committing to a specific campaign (I used to be an activist against nucleaar power when I was younger), or using our emotions and perceptions to make art that may be sustaining both to ourselves and to others.
On the population issue, whilst I’m sure encouraging and facilitating women’s choice to have fewer babies and tackling the issues that still make it seem advantageous for a lot of poor people to have a lot of kids is a good thing, I’m much less sure that population is globally such a primary issue – opinions seem to vary a lot about this and I don’t feel clear either way. It’s overwhelmingly a rich minority who are destroying the earth, both directly through our lifestyles and indirectly through economic oppression.
Jean, thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I agree with most of what you say though I still think the vastly and rapidly expanding population is a huge drain in its demand for all kinds of resources and food that we are having difficulty providing, especially in the Third World countries while there’s too much mindless consumerism and waste in the wealthier nations. I think Suzuki’s film (and many other of his programs) discusses this in a very clear way.
thanks for the article, nicely written. i have late night worry-lists just like that. i have to agree that so much worry will push me into inaction, it is best for me to focus on what i can do within my sphere of influence. feeling overwhelmed vs. feeling inspired is how i look at it. what can i do differently with how i live? xx
Elisa, yes, we do need to focus on what we can do ourselves as individuals, and I know you are doing that a lot in going back to the old ways of making and preserving food as just one example – good for you! And your sister Erika is such a committed and active environmentalist and keeps us on our toes with new green products for example. Though we’ve always tried our best, there is always more that we can do (or not do) that we are learning about. Putting pressure on our politicians to do the right things is the biggest challenge!
Marja-Leena, I like that list. I wish we could cut down on the travel, but if we did we would never see our grandchildren.
Soon we will all be forced to make sacrifices, whether we want to or not.
Hattie, I know what you mean, and our grandkids are in the UK.