Thinking globally

When we had friends over for dinner recently, we found ourselves – as usual – talking about the state of the world. The general consensus was that these are the worst times in all the years we have been alive.

Our descent into almost total despond began with a discussion about the hockey player sexual assault trial and, more generally, the many failures of the criminal law response to gender-based violence. This brought us to the Jeffrey Epstein debacle, which quickly led us to Donald Trump and the most recent horrors he and his cronies have foisted on the United States and the rest of the world, in their quest for totalitarian control of the planet.

From there, it was a straight line to Israel’s war on Gaza and the ongoing nightmare in Ukraine.

Why stop there? It wasn’t long until we were talking about the climate crisis, including the wildfire situation in Canada.

In a desperate attempt to end the evening on a slightly less gloomy note, I suggested that we each think of one good thing that had happened recently. I kicked off by mentioning Victoria Mboko’s victory at the Canadian Open tennis tournament. One of our guests then offered up how much she had enjoyed eating delicious local corn on the cob the day before.

But, I’m sad to say, that was the end of the positives. The others at the table were unable to summon up anything to add to the list. We all agreed, happy as we were for Mboko’s win, that it and some tasty corn hardly amounted to enough to make us feel good about the world around us.

As I cleaned up after our friends left, I found myself sinking into a deep slough of despair, wondering if and how I would be able to drag myself out of it.

Acting locally

Fortunately, I remembered an excerpt I had read from a recent interview David Suzuki gave to iPOLITICS and, the next morning, went looking for the full article.

At 89 years of age, Suzuki has been an outspoken environmental activist, focusing much of his efforts on the climate crisis, for longer than pretty much anyone who is still alive. He has spent decades educating and trying to raise the awareness of policy and decision makers in government and the private sector, with a warm, non-judgmental and hopeful approach. He is one of the most respected activists in the world and has supported and participated in a wide range of activities designed to bring attention to the planet’s environmental catastrophe.

He seemed always to believe that persuading decision makers to do the right thing was possible, so his statement last month came as quite a surprise:

“I’ve never said this to the media before, but it’s too late.”

Fortunately, this was only the beginning of a message that, while it started out sounding pretty gloomy, ended on a hopeful note.

“Look, I’m not giving up in the sense of not doing anything, but Trump’s election was the dagger in my heart. Trump’s win was the triumph of capitalism and neoliberalism, and he is going to wreak havoc. There’s nothing we can do about that, except maybe incremental changes. That’s not what we need. . . . For me, what we’ve got to do now is hunker down.  . . I’m urging local communities to get together [in the face of future climate emergencies]. They’re going to come and they’re going to be more urgent and prolonged. . . . You’re going to have to inventory your community, and that’s really what we have to start doing now.”

In other words, think globally and act locally. Work for change that is bottom up and not top down. Build communities of care; places that are safe for all of us for as long as possible.

The same principles apply whether we’re talking about the climate crisis or racism or poverty or the housing crisis or the epidemic of gender-based violence or . . . . At the end of the day, it’s up to us to take action into our own hands if we want to see meaningful change that reflects the needs of our community; however we define that word.

Maybe we need to shift the focus of our conversations from the big picture to talking about what we can do closer to home. Maybe we’ll feel less despair and, just maybe, we’ll find ourselves part of work that has a real impact.

Taking a break

As Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke has said:

“Do your best, then do a bit better, and then don’t beat yourself up.”

Almost all of us could be doing more than we are to make things better, but Winona is right.

We need to each do what we can, challenging ourselves to move outside our comfort zone, and then we need to forgive ourselves for not doing more. We’ll get nowhere if we spend too much time castigating ourselves or others for not doing enough or for not doing the “right” thing.

For me, this means letting go of my determination to write something for my website every week. Sometimes, I struggle to find something to say. Other times, I’d rather do something else – read a book, cook a meal, visit friends. I love writing my blogs – I’ve written 671 since March 2017 — and I’m not planning on stopping anytime soon. But, for the next while, I’m going to write only when I want to and when there is something really important to write about, and I’m not going to beat myself up about that.

I hope you’ll stay tuned; just don’t expect 800 words every single week.