When you see how deep its tentacles reach, you fall apart.
But that doesn't need to be the end of the story. Because in the painful seeing of how deeply those tentacles have bitten right down into the skin of everything ~ turned us against each other and outsourced everything, including meaning ~ then, after that, comes the sunrise. Then you begin to see how different it could be. How invested with meaning the alternative would be. How you would work harder than you do now, but it would be more enjoyable. How you could begin to stop hating your neighbour, when they stop being your alienated competitor.
And then, once you see the alternative, you can't stop seeing it. And it gives you hope.
Apart from the bits of schmaltz here and there, this is a pretty good example of the beginnings of that.
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Stamford's a transition town, but I've not heard a lot about it recently. I might just look into it a bit more now, after seeing this. Thanks for the nudge. I'm also considering starting a local community exchange scheme, which you mentioned a while back. You're a great catalyst for these things, Sue. (And a little schmaltz with me brekkies never does any harm:))
ReplyDeleteAs a struggling artist, trying to pay the rent, I worked as an administrative assistant for 24 years in New York City at a University on a program called the Science and Environmental Reporting Progam. When I started we had classroom videos just like this one you posted today and most scientists were aware of the mess the planet was in, but the general public rarely saw that material and were not informed. Students came from all over the world with undergraduate degrees in science and ended up with a Masters degree in Journalism, so the program was designed to put literally hundreds of environmentally trained reporters out there in news centres and print media to help get more of the environmental and scientific challenges translated into common knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of theories that the survival of the planet is the ultimate challenge to advance humanity into a global community with everybody from every continent and country, pulling on the oars of survival. It is interesting also, that the Internet came to be in the middle of that crisis, and is gradually prodding a world community toward mutual dialog. Your blog, Sue, and this post are part of that miracle.
Is schmaltz a digestive aid? :)
ReplyDeleteI joined the sort of local community exchange scheme a couple of weeks ago, but as of yet haven't really done anything with it. I really like the idea though and hope to get involve as my psycho detox symptoms (hopefully) abate.
That's very cool that Stamford is a transition town. I've had a look at a few of the Victoria/Australia listings on the Transition Towns website and there seems to be a few places that maybe aren't doing a whole lot. But maybe that's okay. They have the skeleton in place, at least.
Would love to hear about your experiences if you do get more involved, Harry. 'twould be inspiring :)
I find a lot of resonance in those theories that the planet is giving us the perfect opportunity to rise to the occasion, to evolve. It certainly does seem, doesn't it, that in some strange way (or perhaps not even so strange but just not-yet-measurable for pernickety Western minds) we create the reality we need to create, and that we create the tools with which to move forward without even really knowing what we are doing half the time. It is a miracle, isn't it, Sarah. It's lovely to be a part of it in some totally miniscule way.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I write posts like this it's because I can feel the despair rising at the futility of it all. That is a very strong narrative, and it's threaded through everything, and we are bombarded with its message every single day. And so when that happens, even writing a blog post feels like an act of resistance. What a strange time we live in, eh?
(That job sounds like it would have been pretty interesting ...)
Oh yes - adds flavour to my fry-up:) I'll keep you posted on developments, but in the meantime here's the website, which also gives you a glimpse of my beautiful home town - http://www.stamfordtransitiontown.org.uk/
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