Thank you for all your comments on my last post about the twelve years ahead.
I could have written them myself, I share your feelings and opinions and despite the gloomy outlook I am so grateful to read them and to know that you are there. That there is a web spanning our planet, a web of goodwill and care and attention.
However, would we/you/ I write the same comments but replace every "us", "we", "humans", "people", "folk", "everybody" with "me" or "I"?
Maybe go back to your comments and try it. Read out your changed comment and tell me how it feels.
This exercise has been brought to my attention by a group of young people currently occupying a forest not too fat from us. In fact, it is the pityful rest of a formerly massive ancient forest which - together with several towns and villages - has been slowly erased by lignite surface mining. In recent months, R has spent some time with them, while I follow their activities on twitter.
More about the forest here.
We are still waiting for a baby being born. Any
I feel completely helpless. And guilty. And afraid.
ReplyDeleteMay this coming baby have a chance for a life that is rich enough to live.
I think about my role in climate change all the time... whenever I run the hot water, turn on the heat, eat our locally made tofu which comes wrapped in plastic, or get into our car. We have a small footprint here, but I want an even smaller one. SOLAR!! Let us know when that baby arrives!
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing this to my attention, Sabine. I am waiting with you for a baby to be born. I liked the feeling of driving down the road through the fog, listening to Buffalo Springfield. I must have heard that sung live in a concert in Los Angeles in 1967-68 during my first year of college. That music brings up a flood of confusing memories that I will not go into. At first I thought the road must be Highway 1, going north through Big Sur in California. Then I realized that the car was on the left side of the road. With a little Googling about the road signs I noticed in the video, I am guessing that the foggy road is in Ireland, the home of my ancestors on my mother's mother's side.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say "I" and "my" I do feel that something is different. What is the difference? Hmmmmm. It seems that when I say "we," "I" am not exactly in my body. I am conscious that there are other people who read your blog. I am placing myself in the midst of a community. A tribal mind?
My mother's father's last name was Wald. His father and grandfather came from Stadtlengsfeld to Massachusetts in the mid 1800s. Grandpa Forest. Trees are dear to me. Good to hear about the young people trying to protect Hambach Forest.
The road in that video is definitely not in Ireland and not in the UK, but I am intrigued now, India? East Africa? Australia? There aren't that many countries with left hand drive.
Deletehere's my comment...too much greed. we won't make it. I don't think we have it in us or we would have already begun. now rewritten...too much greed. I won't make it. I don't think I have it in me or I would have already begun. it's not me I'm worried about, I'm 68, it's my children and grandchildren and I figure at this point I won't have any great grandchildren. but as for me, I began when I began my adult life. as a working artist with an unpredictable income raising a family 'waste not, want not', 'less is more' were more than just platitudes. errands in the car were configured for efficiency. I recycled paper and glass and aluminum, took my own grocery bags decades before it was trendy and finally plastics when the city got on board. I grow some of my own food. I don't write this to brag but to underscore Tara's comment. the little people have minimal effect. business and society needs to be restructured. the rich will make it. the poor will suffer as usual. perhaps when famine and natural disaster sweep through and kill off most of the human race and the planet recovers, those survivors will be able to build a better world.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the little people have minimal effect on their own - but there are a lot of us little people.
DeleteSabine, I just read this article and thought of you. It's long and full of sad details about the decline of life on our planet.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html
It's been in the news here for about two years now after a first study with devastating results was done in Germany.
DeleteIt feels good to go back and take responsibility for my comment, make it about me. It makes me more accountable. Wonderful exercise.
ReplyDeleteYes, that was the idea. Thanks!
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