the sands of time: running faster and faster until…IT ENDS
— all of it.
hardly the most uplifting message to start your day.
but some things are too late:
saving ourselves
saving our jobs
saving the planet
saving the animals,
insects and species that we haven’t yet discovered
(i’d wager some get wiped out before we even come upon them).
wait a minute!
there’s always hope. what, like a mortgage? saving for tomorrow.
what about NOW.
it’s all we’ve got.
but, arguably, not to be too misanthropic, we might have ruined that too.
if ‘I’ had to live my life like that…
i know; it’s all so depressing, bleak, life-negating.
come on. look what we’ve achieved so far.
a better quality of life;
a long life;
less poverty;
and more to be grateful for than hopeless
— which is what your message connotes.
sure. there’s not much i’d disagree with but where’s it all headed?
i jest of course, but does anyone seriously think, even with all the hyperbolic statements about net-zero targets (what about what’s here, now?) that we’re going to mend ourselves and this world?
yes, it always starts with us — me included. especially me.
if we don’t change the way we see the world, namely, as something we own and to be used for our benefit and not something to be loved, cherished and cared for, for all generations to come then, frankly, you don’t need me to tell you that the future will look very different to now.
i know some of the psychology of catastrophe speak. too much doom, gloom and misanthropy is more apt to turn us off paradigmatic change than it is to inspire our change of heart.
i’m not forgetting (in case you were thinking i’m completely heartless) this egregious and drawn out pandemic but to my mind that only serves to remind us — jolt us more like — how fragile we really are. we’re not much of a match for a little virus. it must have thought all its Christmases had come at once.
you wait until we’re hit by another catastrophic storm, there are water and food shortages and another zoonotic disease gets among us. the gods — if you believe in those things — will be looking on with (and of course i don’t know) with a wry smile that or a quiet sense of desperation that we haven’t felt the changes in the air.
anyone who thinks that climate change isn’t really a thing or the jury is still out (a Supreme Court justice of all people!) needs more than their head examining. no ifs, buts or maybes.
one last thing.
capital and it’s unholy alliance with the corporate vehicle which has done it’s best to produce shareholder value needs a serious shake up.
no, i don’t mean a little massage here and there. i mean how we engineer a new world through the lens of corporate machinery that isn’t as rapacious as this little gaggle of misfits. you only have to start a wee investigation of the numbers to discover that absent a few behemoth companies and funders the world would (and i grossly simplify for effect) be a much better place. of course, there would be a massive displacement of labour and a plethora of unknown or unforeseen consequences but the conversation needs to start sooner rather than later.
in the end, though, it’s all a choice. and we can only act one day at a time. but from my not-so-lofty perch, now more than ever we need a sensible, long-overdue conversation about the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible (i’ve borrowed those last few words from the book by Charles Eisenstein — check it out. it’s worth reading) and to dial down the business as usual or even a slightly better version of the same.
it will, I’m afraid to say be: TOO LATE.
take care dear Friends.
blessings and love
Julian
PS. the lack of capitals and the wonky text is deliberate.