Essays, Observing The World, -  Oct 21, 2024

Mountains and Waters Alliance – October 2024 – Facing today’s world

I’m thinking about how we prepare spiritually for the U.S. election (if we’re involved) and all the rest of what’s happening – which changes every day, and has been painful even to watch.

Thoughts:

The election is just over two weeks away. I promised to work the polls, and have not yet done the training, but I will.

Unlike many people, I don’t know the answers about the election. I’m afraid of what Trump or Vance would do – and it breaks my heart to seem to approve the genocide in Gaza, Lebanon, and wherever else. I’ve made a decision for myself: I’m voting for the most workable opponent, and then doing the real work, all year, every year.  Still, elections have effects. Please consider all the races – Congress, state offices, judges, school boards, library boards, county soil & water – all of them. So many races that are officially nonpartisan have been filled with people who have strong partisan agendas, and if we don’t pay attention we may lose things we’ve taken for granted for entire lifetimes. Please pay attention and vote.

 

There’s a thing called hope, which is in short supply these days, and is criticized for misleading people into complacency. I want to talk about what hope means for me.

Hope means the future is not known. Hope means there is a chance, however tiny, that we may survive, may come to our senses collectively, listen to the warnings of hurricanes and floods, abandon our commitment to profit for the wealthy, turn toward providing clean air, water, food, shelter and safety for our children and grandchildren – and for the children of Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Syria, Western Sahara – I would have to name every country in the world to be complete. This aching wound that is the world right now!

 

The story of chrysalis comes into my mind. Caterpillars go into chrysalis and completely dissolve before becoming butterfly. I cringe a little. When my family and I are safe and well, and others are dying, I have no right to put on rose-colored glasses.  I have no idea what will be born from those who are going through the fire right now, those who survive fire and flood and genocide. But this, here, in this country called United States, this needs to disintegrate o rebirth can happen. And that needs us to be willing to fall apart, to be hungry, and to lend a hand just as we’re hearing from western North Carolina right now – and watching in Gaza and Lebanon – the commitment to all of us – even if that hand is just offered to a neighbor in a snowstorm, or a child with a hurt.

 

I found this poem. Adrienne Rich, 1978

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.

-Adrienne Rich

 

Nearly fifty years ago, it looked like this. More is lost now than I ever imagined then, and still the power of life arises in us. This afternoon I helped my neighbors plant three hundred willow trees, to hold the bank by the creek, and felt the power of community. We continue to act. Please, whatever you expect, whether you think hope is real or a delusion, cast your lot with those who reconstitute the world.

 

I’m sending a separate post with fall events and our news.