I was fishing in Canada, and took a lunch break in a lodge where I sat beside two men in heated conversation. I wrote about this in my September 6, 2018 post. One was jilted by an attractive woman, and ranted about the injustice. The other listened awhile then said, “Look around!” In other words, “Notice reality around you.” Similarly, fossil fuels have been attractive, yet deadly. I mean, “Look around!” at recent climate-related events: Maui, California, Washington State, Florida, Vermont, Phoenix, Kelowna B.C., Indonesia, Slovenia, Tenerife, Beijing, Niger, Algeria, Morocco, Norway, Chile and Argentina.
What should one do? I like Joanna Macy’s story about Thich Nhat Hanh at the start of this video, “When he was asked, ‘What’s the most important thing we can do for the sake of life on Earth?’ And I think his questioners were asking, you know, should we work in the system, or sit on a zafu, or meditate, or climb the barricades? [ . . . . ] He said, ‘What we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the Earth crying.’”
Nhat Hanh’s advice seems like a good first step to help people know where to go, and what to do.
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