another way to look at it: coronavirus edition

planet earth is blue and there's something we can do

It's the first second Friday of the month and so the members of our critique group human community once again have a challenge before us: we are now entering a period during which daily life as we know it cannot be sustained.  The inconvenience, the disappointment, the sorrow are monumental.

People are feverish with virus and anxiety, and the contagion can barely be contained. Our fear for our own lives and those of our neighbors has spurred us into immediate and collective action, with or without the wise or courageous leadership of our elected officials.

This, friends, is the response the young people have been looking for in the face of catastrophic climate change.  The planet is feverish with emissions and wild weather, and the reckless squandering of resources has not been contained.  Our fear for our own lives and those of our neighbors has not spurred us into immediate and collective action, despite the wise and courageous leadership of our youth, our scientists and our public policy experts.

But now that can change.  

Now we see that what must be done, can be done, 

if we have enough fear.  The governor of a state can go on TV and simply declare that 

you must not keep dumping your food waste into the same bin as your trash.  

A school system can spend a short amount of time and, to the best of its ability, redirect its resources and transform its operations to make school transportation

greener and more efficient. Churches, nonprofits and individual families 

can cooperate to reverse global warming now, if we

accept that "business as usual" is no longer sustainable.

This is the silver lining.  This is the moment.  
This is the straw that breaks the camel's back; this is the inconvenient truth.
No mud, no lotus.  No dark of night, no day.
This is where we see that us and them, that now and next, are the same. 

Friends, be careful out there. Be wise and courageous IN there. And when we have moved through this challenge, don't forget that we proved we can move through the next infinitely bigger challenge.