i'm wiped out. midterms are finally over and there's only a couple days left in the week. i just want to sleep all day and pretend that the world is in good condition. but i can't and it's not. i find myself constantly reframing my world to find the positive string to follow, to keep up hope that our global community can figure this all out. sometimes it just seems like we're on a collision course with our extinction and there's no way to steer.
it keeps bringing me back to impermanence. it's a universal truth. everything dies. this planet will one day die when the sun goes out. it is inevitable that the human race and all living creatures and things on earth will cease to exist. my attachment to my very easy life is hard to give up though. i don't want to think that i'll ever be uncomfortable or that i'll have to struggle for my sustainance. but who knows ... maybe i will, maybe i won't. i'd like to think that we will stop this incessant fighting and start co-existing and treating our home (the planet) as we would expect a house guest to treat our house. we're not doing that right now. no, the marvels of industry and the ease of disengagement have allowed most of us to believe that we have no responsibility or need to care for the planet. you can easily buy your comfort in the short term, so why think about the long term? isn't it easy just to ignore the warnings and the threats? i do it everyday.
the real problem is we don't really know what's going to happen. because of the lack of true predictability, because of that ounce of uncertainty, we are able to pretend it's all going to be okay.
i believe that it's not too late. not at all. but global warming is happening. diseases are getting stronger. weather patterns are changing. we're gradually running out of oil and trees and potable water. the air ain't so good in a lot of places.
what does it take to make the changes that we are capable of making to ensure our survival? well, first we need to stop fighting each other. can we just have a big global "do over"?
i didn't expect to write any of this. it's just on my mind lately and i feel pretty heavy. i want to be able to think about these issues and really appreciate the importance and need to make changes without being depressed. this is my life, after all, and i have a choice between being up or being down. the prognosis might not be so hot right now, but i'd like to believe that with a positive attitude and living a healthy life, a full recovery is possible.
we'll see how it goes. i'll do my part ... will you do yours? it's not so hard. really. we just all need to lend a hand.
check out Smartsoul.com . it's a start.
here's an article about the artic report . notice how they barely talk about the impacts on life and more about how we can tap into more oil reserves now that the polar ice caps are melting?
great! more oil to burn to make the planet even toastier!
thinking happy thoughts ... happy thoughts ... happy ......
1 comment:
uncertainty is this big strange black hole reality that i think everyone has a hard time with. i've been thinking about uncertainty off and on since i had the chance to discuss is it academically a few years ago (whoah, i guess it's been that long!) at school. i've been focusing on the the idea that we need to acknowledge uncertainty head on in every decision we make, especially decisions that affect lots and lots of people and places and things (like ecosystems). specifically, i think we need to have if, then policies or guidelines for decisions that involve uncertainty about whether a certain technology or industry, for instance will cause harm to people, places or things. and i think the burden of proof should be on those who want to gain from the development/sale/use of a technology to demonstrate a reasonable measure of safety before it's okay to go ahead. i hadn't considered uncertainty as something we ARE aware of and have decided CONSCIOUSLY not to deal with because we don't know how, it's too hard, etc. so, thanks for sharing your thoughts...i am right there with you on all of this. i apparently decided (I worked this out later) around age 15 to trade in my rampant pessimism for radical optimism and have been aligning my thoughts and my life around that, more or less, ever since. Mostly beacuse I find that i can't funtion very well or do much good in the world when i'm not practicing optimism. sometimes, though, i feel as though i'm ignoring things and tuning out rather than being optimistic in the face of oppression and pollution and greed and violence. this is a good reminder to me to check that out more and see how i can be truly optimistic more often.
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