Noticing

My truest wish for this space is that I offer ideas that can benefit our society, our world, as a whole. But I have been holding back. So many of the important problems in modern American society have become incredibly polarized and politicized and I do not wish to stand on one side: I want to stand across the lines, to speak to our commonalities and our mutual benefit and not our differences. But I’m worried that it’s not possible, that I don’t know how, or that my intentions won’t affect the outcome.

I see many of our most pressing issues as ones that are not inherently political, but they have become politicized, sometimes aggressively so. Cynically, I believe this is because someone (well a great many someones really) benefits from that polarity. There are certain topics that are important, that matter a great deal to our daily lives, but that are so firmly entrenched in political dialogue that sharing an opinion will mean that I will be type-cast and written-off by many people.

So I’ve been hesitating. Avoiding. Considering. And I’ve talked been talking to people I know and trust about my dilemma. The answer I’m getting from all sides is, essentially, ‘so what? If you have to say it maybe we need to hear it.’ It seems almost inevitable that I’ll be boxed up into some neat container, whether or not it’s at all fair, true, or reasonable, so why hold back? Why restrict myself to topics that feel safe, when I want to explore these thornier questions? I am finding that I don’t see a good reason, outside of fear that I’ll be labeled, judged, or attacked (in writing). And, while those things will not feel good, they are not good enough reasons because these are the issues we need to face if we are to move through our current divisions to create a society that is better for more of us.

As I write and find my voice here, I want to be clear that every idea I explore is coming from a desire to learn and teach, to find ways to make life better for more people. We live in a time and a place with a lot of suffering. Much of our suffering is being magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic, stay at home orders, and the economic impacts associated with shutting down all but essential services. But these problems, this suffering, has existed for a long time. Our world and the U.S. in particular have been losing luster and we don’t seem to know which way is up when we look for solutions. I’m not here to say I am always right or my answers are the best, but I am here to say that I see connections that others don’t always catch. It is one of my greatest skills and one that I first exercised when evaluating complex environmental problems like major oil spills and mining contamination. But this skill, this insight, also pops up with social structures, and, perhaps most poignantly, in the interaction of social and ecological structures.

This is the thread that I want to unravel. Our world is shifting, our societies are suffering, and in this moment we have stopped regular life in an effort to avoid a disastrous disease. This pandemic is helping me articulate observations I’ve had for a long time about how we relate to the environment and nature. Written that way, it seems like a banal and unremarkable topic, but it is incredibly complex, and affects every aspect of our lives. Most importantly, however much we think we’ve ‘mastered nature’ and are somehow above it, we are wrong in that belief. The forces that drive climate and ecological interactions are powerful and, eventually, unstoppable.

We see it all the time with events like hurricanes, massive snowstorms, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and now a major and deadly global pandemic. The media presents these type of events as though they are a human enemy: we will rebuild, we will prevail, we won’t let the destruction of our town keep us from rebuilding. I admire much in the desire to rebuild and move forward. But I can’t help but think that, in many instances, that impulse is misguided. It is also interesting to consider that these so-called ‘natural disasters’ are in fact the natural forces that created our world and are actually important parts of the whole ecological picture, important forces that bring balance to the physical and biological processes that make Earth unique, that support life.

When we have the hubris to think we can control, predict, or somehow avoid the completely natural events of our world, we create an us versus them mentality that makes “nature” the enemy. And that is perhaps our greatest mistake. We can build a house to protect us from everyday nuisances like rain, snow, or heat. But we cannot stop bigger scale events, and when we do succeed at “taming” nature, it usually backfires; inevitably, it eventually fails.

There are many specific issues that we will need to work through as a country and as a global population in the coming months and years. But we need to start by breaking the pattern, by remembering that we are a part of the earth, we are part of the ecosystems – even in big cities – and we are all affected by the forces of nature. All of us, at all times. If we can remember that, maybe we have a chance to solve some of our problems, clean up some of our messes, in ways that actually do good for both people and the planet. In fact, if we cannot find ways to solve those problems in ways that are beneficial to the greatest good, they are not likely to succeed in the long run.

I think that one of the best first steps we can all take is to find a moment, a minute, an hour each day to notice something in the natural world – good or bad, nice or ugly – that we can connect with in some way. We need to make a daily practice of connecting with the world outside of our build environment, outside of the economy, the city, the daily grind. This is something we all have in common, and we all have some access to observe a plant, a bird, an insect, a cloud, the rain, the wind, a majestic mountain view. It’s everywhere around us, and if we can begin to notice, begin to find how much we have in common, we can begin to see past some of the ideological barriers that have us in deadlock. So, what did you notice today?