Adapted by Les Grady from Active Hope by J. Macy and C. Johnstone
Sunday, April 21, 2013
What Aileth Thee
Adapted by Les Grady from Active Hope by J. Macy and C. Johnstone
In their book Active Hope authors Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone use the story of “Parsifal and the Fisher King†to illustrate a situation of great suffering not being acknowledged and of people carrying on as if nothing were wrong. Today we are experiencing a similar situation in climate change. Climate change is not something that will happen at some future time. It is happening now and it is affecting real people and real ecosystems. Yet we seldom talk about how we feel about it; about what our concerns are. Rather we act as if all is well. Why is that? What keeps us from facing a disturbing and troubling truth?
Before addressing those questions, I first ask you to confront how you feel about what is happening around the world today. I would like for you to close your eyes and listen to some statements I will make. As you listen, please concentrate on how they make you feel. Don’t analyze them intellectually. Rather, feel how you respond viscerally. I will pause for a few seconds after each to allow you to contemplate those feelings. Afterwards I will address how our failure to acknowledge our feelings can block our ability to act on the problem.
- Earth has warmed almost 1.5°F since preindustrial times and last year the Arctic ice cap was only half the size it was in 1979. Both the hunter and the hunted are in danger in the unfrozen north. In addition, the loss of Arctic ice will accelerate Earth’s warming.
- Mountain Pine Beetles have extended their range and destroyed 70,000 sq. miles of Rocky Mountain forests in the past decade; forests that once sheltered whole ecosystems, kept fragile mountain soil in place, and slowed the run-off of rain and melt-water.
- Felipe, a Pucarumi alpaca herder, has witnessed the recession of the life-giving Andean Ausangate glacier every year. “This loss of snow means we receive less water. This climatic factor is causing us great danger. All the community is worried. We do not know what to do or what to say about this chaos.â€
- The oceans are warmer and 30% more acidic than they were in preindustrial times. As a result, coral reefs are in decline worldwide and the 500 odd million people who live along coastlines and depend on the fish that breed and thrive among coral reefs are at risk.
- Unreliable rainfall is worrying people across Africa though they often don’t have any sense of global climate change or its causes: “the autumn rainy season has become shorter than it was in the past. People here are badly affected by the lack of water…the farming here is dependent on rain.†“When it does rain now, it rains too much,†“It destroys crops and they do not grow properly and so hunger comes up.â€
We have many reactions to such painful and alarming statements, but all too often our response is to block them out; to not act on them. Macy and Johnstone list seven ways we justify our inaction.
- I don’t believe it’s that dangerous. People look for clues in those around them. How many times have you been in a building and had the fire alarm go off? The first reaction is to look around and see what is happening. If there is no smoke or fire and everybody else is going on with business as usual, ignoring the alarm, we tend to do the same. A similar thing is happening today with respect to climate change. Its impacts are hard to discern and everyone else is acting as if it is no big deal, so it is easy to convince ourselves that the problem can’t be that serious.
- It isn’t my role to sort this out. The individualism of western, industrialized societies, particularly in the US, fragments our sense of responsibility. In this view, the world is divided into separate pieces, and we’re only responsible for the pieces we own, control, or inhabit. We do a great job of taking care of our own backyard, but view anything further away than the end of the street as someone else’s responsibility. Look at the attitude of many farmers in the Valley about efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
- I don’t want to stand out from the crowd. If we are alarmed about something but no one else seems to be, then we risk drawing attention to ourselves if we express our concern. Keeping quiet protects us from the discomfort of standing out. This invisible pressure to conform leads us to doubt our own perceptions, because if no one else is acknowledging a problem, perhaps we’ve got it wrong.
- This information threatens my commercial or political interests. The value of a fossil fuel company depends on the amount of proven reserves that it holds. If society were to decide that we should stop burning fossil fuels and leave them in the ground, then a large portion of the value of those companies would be lost. Since the sole purpose of corporations in the US is to maximize the profits for their investors, it is perfectly understandable why people in the fossil fuel industry downplay or cast doubt on the dangers posed by climate change.
- It is so upsetting that I prefer not to think about it. This is a perfectly human response and one of the most common among the well-informed. When you read the recent World Bank report, Turn Down the Heat, Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided, it breaks your heart. You simply don’t want to think about the possibility, although that is the path we are on.
- I feel paralyzed. I’m aware of the danger, but I don’t know what to do. Macy and Johnstone quote Jennifer, a former activist: “In the 1990s, I’d felt optimistic; I sensed people were waking up, that there was a growing determination to do something. But it didn’t come to much, and the problems we face just seem to get worse. I feel I must do something; I can’t just watch this. Yet there is so much that needs doing, I don’t know where to start. It is overwhelming and I feel paralyzed.â€
- There’s no point doing anything, since it won’t make any difference. This perspective makes it hard to find authentic meaning and purpose in life, yet it is widespread in society today. It is also one that is fostered by those advocating business as usual. Consider the recent environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL pipeline, which stated that the carbon dioxide associated with use of the oil carried by the pipeline would have little impact because it would only add 2% to worldwide emissions. That is like saying that the French fries or the candy bar you just ate won’t affect your weight because they are only a small part of your annual caloric intake!
As we think about these responses it is important to realize that we can be caught between two fears – the fear of what will happen if we, as a society, continue the way we’re going, and the fear of acknowledging how bad things are because of the despair that doing so brings up. If we listen to the first fear we can begin to take action that will ultimately move us down the road to avoiding the worst by limiting our carbon dioxide emissions. But to be able to do that, we must free ourselves from the stifling effect of the second fear. There are ways to do this, and that is why members of the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley, or CAAV, are studying Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone.
The word “hope†has two different meanings. The first involves hopefulness, in which our preferred outcome is likely to happen. If we require this kind of hope before we commit to action, we can easily be blocked when the task is difficult and the odds of success are small. The second meaning involves desire; what we want the outcome to be. It is this kind of hope that starts our journey. It is what we do with this hope that makes the difference. Passive hope is about waiting for others to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. It is a practice and it involves three steps. First, we take a clear view of reality. Second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move. Third, we take steps to move our situation in that direction. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about.
Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus on our intention and let it be our guide.
A central principle of Active Hope is that pain for the world is a normal healthy response to climate change. However, many of us are reluctant to look at our grief or despair because we are afraid of getting stuck in those emotions. In reality, though, we all have the capacity to deal with distress. Furthermore, facing that distress can lead to an increased determination to act and a renewed appetite for life. Honoring our pain for the world is a way to acknowledge that we are aware of what is happening and that we care. It empowers us to act.
So, has the study of Active Hope transformed members of CAAV? Not yet. Not entirely. It is still a work in progress, but we have hope in Active Hope. In the meantime, I would like to suggest that there are things you can do to help you channel your pain constructively. Some are listed on the insert in your Order of Service. I hope you find them helpful.
In closing, consider the following from Active Hope:
Active Hope is not wishful thinking.
Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued
by the Lone Ranger or by some savior.
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life
on whose behalf we can act.
We belong to this world.
The web of life is calling us forth at this time.
We’ve come a long way and are here to play our part.
With Active Hope we realize that there are adventures in store,
strengths to discover, and comrades to link arms with.
Active Hope is readiness to engage.
Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths
in ourselves and in others;
a readiness to discover the reasons for hope
and the occasions for love.
A readiness to discover the size and strengths of our hearts,
our quickness of mind, our steadiness of purpose,
our own authority, our love of life,
the liveliness of our curiosity,
the unsuspected deep well of patience and diligence,
the keenness of our senses, and our capacity to lead.
None of these can
be discovered in an armchair or without risk.