“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”― Charles Dickens, A tale of Two Cities
Seems like Dickens words were written over the past few years. Not in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution. Here we are in the beginning decades of the twenty first century, and I can’t help wondering… have things changed all that much since then, have we actually evolved as a human species? Truth be told, I’m not sure.
I would love nothing better then to focus on those things that make these the best of times. Although I have to admit I find myself struggling. So as we ring in this new year, I hear Leonard Cohen lyrics running through me telling us:
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets”
I want to believe that I feel something in the air. I hope for a cultural awakening, a sliver of light, a crack in the cultural narrative. maybe a silver lining showing itself in the clouds, as I sadly observe our culture drifting aimlessly into 2022…
I try to avoid despair when thinking, talking, or writing about climate change. Not easy to do when you have the scientific data staring you in the face. Not when wild fires rage, not when tornadoes and floods make waste of towns and villages around the globe. I try hard to be hopeful, for the sake of the children. I get it, pandemics, economic down turned, conspiracy narratives, fear mongers, it is so easy to crumble, to give up, to become yet another negative presence on the planet, a presence that shrugs, and does nothing.
Then I remember Thomas Berry’s words “to be hopeful is to be human”. And so I am am trying to be a hopeful person. The hope I long for is rooted in the reality of this our particular moment in time, because this is the only moment we have. This is our collective moment when we must choose to say yes to the Ecozoic*, or to give in to the allurement of the dark powers of “the worst of times” driven by the false narrative of selfishness, greed, violence and despair, leaving little hope for the future of humanity. So in spite of myself I choose hope. I choose to believe the Ecozoic is possible. Directly or indirectly, aware or unaware, our collective mandate is to birth the Ecozoic into existence. To say yes to life, to all life…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
*The term “Ecozoic era” was coined by Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Swimme for their book The Universe Story in order to describe the geologic era that Earth is entering – when humans live in a mutually enhancing relationship with Earth and the Earth community.