Dappled Sunlight on Blue-beaded Lily in Eastern PEI Woodland, Sept 2021
I can't recall the circumstances surrounding the first time I learned of the Buddhist term samsara (loosely translated as cycle of suffering) but I do recall feeling taken by the notion that the suffering we live is only changed through the process of altering those conditions which caused the suffering in the first place. Hmmm? Could we apply this to the multiple crises humanity is facing today?
So if we are living in this seemingly unbelievable time of severe climate disruption and the massive suffering caused by it, while the world- over respectable scientists are sounding the climate alarm, then might it stand to reason that we must radically, urgently change the way we are living or face the consequential suffering which will arise from our collective inaction? Just asking?
But how to make change when so much of what we live is rooted in capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth and when said change is thwarted at every front by the very systems designed to maintain the status quo? (thinking of the ongoing lack of governmental support of electoral reform and the cyclical repetition of election results this week) So many people feel understandably handcuffed by the systems we live in and out of each day.
From education and health care to how we house and feed ourselves--we are all in deep with the perpetuation and upholding of these systems. And no one more so than those for whom the systems seem to be serving best (the just hanging on middle class/upper middle class). And certainly the wealthy elite—those 1 percenters for whom there are no rules. Only the most radical among us will leave provincial or federal government jobs or tenured positions at a university, or mortgaged homes to say “this is madness—each day just creating more of the same when we KNOW we must urgently behave differently". The rest of us are just trying desperately to keep bills paid and body and soul together with the stakes getting higher each day.
(Not to mention those incredible humans who quietly go about their lives being the change they seek...creating change at the grass roots level..thinking of all the Gary Schenider's and Marie Burge's amongst so many other heroes.)
This morning I read an incredibly inspiring CBC First Person news story by a woman whose moral compass would appear to read that she can no longer abide by participating in the education system when she knows how much of our way of living needs to change. Her name is Dr. Heather Short and she is a Canadian scientist and educator. She has made the radical choice to leave her tenured position as a professor because she could not bear to continue to teach young adult students the science about climate change when she said it felt to her like she was teaching them that unless things change and fast, they will have unlivable futures and then just wishing them nothing more than good luck with it. Her sense of moral responsibility to her students and future generations is admirable and unfortunately amongst her peers (speaking here to adults of her generation and older)—rare.
From the story:
My resignation is my act of conscientious objection to educational business-as-usual with a "green" twist, couched in the assumption of a forever-growing economy on a physically finite planet. The science clearly shows us that the future our students are headed for will be radically different from one that can be met by the incremental changes and technological solutions we are currently engaged in.
As education stands now, we are not preparing our students to be successful in their futures, and by not admitting to that, we are failing them.
As a scientist and educator, I must speak the scientific truth no matter the personal, social or economic consequences. I will now endeavour to educate decision-makers, politicians, voters and in general those who have the economic and political agency to contribute to the transformative systemic changes that need to be made.
On this glorious, early autumn day of international walkouts and marches for climate, when young climate activist Greta Thunberg will give yet another of her valiant rallying calls to her generation, I ask you to consider, in a true spirit of hopefulness for a better tomorrow, what more of a rallying call do we need to make real, sustainable systems wide change?
What discomforts are we willing to endure to ensure a more livable future for all beings?
What changes must we enact so that the cycle of suffering is not locked in even more terrifying ways?
Is there any better way to engender hope than by truly being the change we seek?
As Dr Short explains:
There is still time to lock in a future climate similar to what the world experienced this past year. The longer we delay, the more unrecognizable our children's and grandchildren's futures become. The climate of our youth may be gone, and that is reason to grieve — but not to give up.
In closing, I admit I have the strange kind of heart that causes me to believe a better tomorrow is always possible. I cannot explain why this is so beyond my neurodivergent wiring. My mind is very capable of critical analysis and utilizes this ability to read and understand the information I take in. What I read about climate and the near future of Earth and its myriad beings clean terrifies me, hence my own sense of urgency. Yet, the little red-headed, orphan Annie part of me will somehow always sing “the sun’ll come out tomorrow”... and all the while my mind knows that the heat of that sun is increasingly becoming unbearable...even untenable for a future of life as we know it.
Wishing you wellness!
Thanks for reading!
Jill
I think the point of Dr Short resigning is that she wants to share with the world that it is NOT too late but that NOW is the time to enact change and urgently so. Defeatism will only ensure a future untenable for bio-diverse life is locked in. Actions rooted in HOPE and POSSIBILITY will transform despair into something more generative.
Now, how to be that action...that is the moral question. And I look to you, dear ma, and the tremendous example of compassion and generosity of spirit you quietly enacted for so many others your whole life. When so many people were in desperate situations you stepped up in the midst of your very busy life and asked "how…
It's hard to believe it's come to this. The worst is that it appears too late to stop the inevitable, based upon the state of the world and the late date....ma