A few nights ago, I quoted John Steinbeck in my World Literature class from his fall 1969 Paris Review interview: "The writers of today, even I, have a tendency to celebrate the destruction of the spirit and god knows it is destroyed often enough. But the beacon thing is that sometimes it is not." I also thought of this when I read a Yale Climate Connections story of "Mary Beth Downing of Boulder, Colorado, [standing] outside her state capitol and [ringing] a bell [. . . .] to express her concern about climate change." Downing said "[. . .] Here’s a crazy idea: anybody want to join me on the 11th day of every month at eleven o’clock to raise an awareness, raise an alarm?" The article continues "It was the start of a monthly interfaith event called the 11th Hour Calling. Participants ring the large bell [11 minutes] at a local church. Across the street, members of a Buddhist center respond by striking their gong. [ . . . .] She says it’s an opportunity for people to come together, [to] confront their fears about global warming [. . .]"
The idea sparked a plan for my next sabbatical where maybe I will host informal "Climate Conversations" on how to prepare psychologically, spiritually, and practically for what is coming.
Dahr Jamial wrote in his July 15, 2019 article "Dancing with Grief" at resilience.org "The reality is, no government on Earth is currently willing to take the dramatic measures necessary that might begin to mitigate what is coming our way. [. . . .] There can no longer be any question that life as we know it, at least for those of us in the privileged West, is now ending." I blogged about this in my July 25, 2019 post where I quoted the writer Charles Bukowski "what matters most is / how well you / walk through the / fire."
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