Footprints in the Sands of Time

The 19th century poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, in A Psalm of Life, "Lives of great men all remind us /  we can make our lives sublime, / and departing, leave behind us / footprints on the sands of time." The 20th century American motivational speaker, Bob Moawad, coined a pithy variation on this: "You can't make footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt."

In other words, if we want to make a difference in the world, we need to get up and do something. There is no use sitting back and expecting other people to solve the problems of the world - we each need to do what we can, where we are, with the talents we have. Which may not be much, but to pinch a well-known supermarket's slogan, "Every little helps."

Yet it has to be considered action. It's no good just leaping up from our seats, rushing off, and doing the first thing which occurs to us. Or simply throwing money at a problem and hoping it will go away. No, we need to think hard and consult with others to find the best long-term solution to whatever the problem is.

Which may indeed involve "sitting on your butt" in meetings, and coming to a considered consensus. But then, it is time for action. It is no good agreeing to take action to make the world a better place, if we then drag our feet and wait for someone else to make the first move. The climate change crisis is a good example of this in action. The Paris Agreement in 2016 was excellent, in its way, but its  implementation has been slow, patchy, and inadequate.

Which is where individual activism comes in - those individual footprints on the sands of time which happen when ordinary people come together and work towards a better world, whether that is by protesting, or by making their own commitments to change the situation through their own actions. "Sitting on your butt" simply won't cut it, not any longer. If we want our children and grandchildren to inherit a sustainable planet, we need to act now.

The Sound of Rain

 This week's quote reads, "When you close your eyes, the rain sounds like applause."

And I really had to think about the sound of rain - it has been so long since we have had any. Which is worrying. I've just checked the weather app on my phone and there is apparently a 75% chance of rain tomorrow where I live, and I'm so glad. It's nearly the end of May, and unless we have some good solid downpours, the crops in the fields around the village are not going to grow as they should. The weather has been beautifully sunny, and I've thoroughly enjoyed feeling the sun on my skin when I've been out and about, but we urgently Need Some Rain.

According to a recent article in The Guardian, "It has been the driest start to spring in 69 years. England saw its driest March since 1961 and in April the country received just half its normal rainfall. Farmers have had to start irrigating crops earlier, and reservoir levels are either notably or exceptionally low across the north-east and north-west of England." 

The article also explained that some crops are already failing and "livestock yields could also be at risk; grazing is not yet short, but farmers point out that fields will need a decent amount of rain to get animals through the summer." The deputy President of the National Farmers Union warned, "The extreme weather patterns we have experienced over the past few years are impacting our ability to feed the nation."

The water companies seem to be sadly underprepared for this calamity and are said to be simply trying to prevent too many leaks and praying for rain.

In The Climate Book, compiled by climate change activist Greta Thunberg in 2022, hydroclimatologist Peter H. Gleick explains the central role of water in our lives. He writes, "Water connects us to everything on the planet: our food and health, the well-being of the environment around us, the production of good and services, and our sense of community. And water is central to the climate - the entire hydrologic cycle of evaporation, precipitation, run-off and all the stocks and flows of water around the world lie at the heart of our climate system." 

He suggests that we need to "re-think" our relationship with water, following a "soft path... moving away from sole reliance on hard, centralized infrastructure like dams, aqueducts and large water treatment plants to a more integrated reliance on treatment and re-use of water, better capture and use of stormwater, smaller-scale distributed water systems, and, when economically and environmentally appropriate, the desalinisation of brackish or ocean water. It also calls for us to reconsider how we use water and to maximize the benefits water provides while minimizing the amount of water and energy we use."

As individuals, we can do some things: not waste water by leaving taps running; shift from taking baths to taking showers; not using hosepipes to water the plants in our gardens (if we are lucky enough to have gardens); and change to a plant-based diet (or at least, reduce the amount of meat we eat). But it is when we join together with others that we have the power to change the climate-unfriendly systems in place around the world. As Unitarians we can become members of Unitarians for Climate Justice, and join them in climate-friendly actions. They explain, "Many of us now see the Climate Crisis as the greatest threat facing the world and its beautiful, diverse community of living beings. As Unitarians, we know the struggle for a sustainable future for life on earth cannot be separated from the struggle for global justice and our belief in the inherent equality and worth of all human beings irrespective of wealth, country, race, religion, sexuality or gender identity." (from U4CJ Facebook page)

We can also join pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and follow their advice about how to live more sustainably.

Maybe then, rain could sound like applause...

A Huge Challenge

Mahatma Gandhi, the mid-20th century non-violent Indian nationalist and philosopher, who famously led the Indian nation out of the British Empire, once wrote, "To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life."

In other words, it's not good enough to stand at the sidelines of life and spout platitudes about goodness, mercy etc. It is necessary to engage with everything around us, on a deeply compassionate and empathic level, regardless of its / their station and circumstance. Gandhi was famous for engaging with people of the Dalit caste, those who were considered to be "untouchable" by members of higher castes.

But oh my goodness! It is a huge challenge. I am sitting here in my nice warm house, working on my laptop (because I can afford to use as much electricity as I need to) and generally living a life of privilege. I have written about my uneasiness about it before, and am only too aware that as a well-off, White, heterosexual woman, I have a head start on so many others, simply through accidents of birth, and good fortune.

Yet Gandhi is not talking only about having compassion and empathy for other human beings, vitally necessary though that is. He speaks of loving "the meanest of creation" as oneself. If we follow that to its logical end, we should all be vegans, climate change and social justice activists, and committed to non-violence, and to alleviating the circumstances of anyone worse off than ourselves.

And I fear that it too hard for most of us. It is too hard for me. Then I remember that I am in the privileged position of being able to choose whether or not to engage with this stuff. And feel guilty all over again. 

Yet I believe that the attempt to live in this way should at least be made, if we are to save this planet and the people and living creatures on it. If we are to fight for justice and equity for all living beings. Words are easy to say and write, but translating those words into concrete and effective actions is hard. Perhaps the least any of us should do is what we can, where we are. And be aware of what we are running away from facing, if we choose to turn our backs on making the effort, being our best selves.

Like I said, it's a huge challenge...

Setting Our Priorities

The 20th century philosopher and author, Albert Camus, once wrote something like, "The greatest saving that can be made in the world of thinking is to accept the incomprehensibility of the world and to take care of people."

Which sounds like a tempting philosophy on one level. In that I agree it is better to spend our time taking care of the people in our world, rather than navel-gazing in a fruitless attempt to understand the incomprehensible.

Yet on another level, don't we have a duty of care to the wider world too? Shouldn't we be doing what we can to try to understand how we might save the planet from climate change, save the innumerable species of animals, insects, plants and other living beings from imminent extinction? It is not just people who matter. And, don't we also have a duty to try to understand how the world works (or perhaps, more accurately fails to work, at least on a human level), in the context of the great interdependence of all life? It's a trickier question than it first sounds.

Because if we don't bother trying to understand how our actions as part of the world impact that same world, how can we minimise our negative impacts and maximise our positive ones? Then, once we do begin to understand that, to put it into practice.

Which is why I recently bought The Climate Book*, a 400+ page large format hardback, in which climate justic activist Greta Thunberg, has brought together all the latest thinking about the climate crisis into one place. In her introduction, she writes, "In 2021, I invited a great number of leading scientists and experts, and activists, authors and storytellers to contribute... This book... covers everything from melting ice shelves to economics, from fast fashion to the loss of species, from pandemics to vanishing islands, from deforestation to the loss of fertile soils, from water shortages to Indigenous sovereignty, from future food production to carbon budgets - and it lays bare the actions of those responsible and the failures of those who should have already shared this information with the citizens of the world."

It is an incredibly well-written but sobering read. I am working my way through it with increasing horror for the mess we are making of our blue-green planet. It is daunting, and tempting to wonder how the actions of any one individual could make a positive difference in the face of the complex problems facing the planet. But that is copping out. At the very end, she includes four short sections, with the following titles:

• What needs to be done
• What we can do together as a society
• What you can do as an individual
• Some of us can do more than others (including politicians, media and TV producers, journalist, and celebrities and influencers)

So yes, I agree with Camus that we need to care for people. But we also need to understand how the actions of people impact the wider world, so that we can do our best to save it, and encourage others to do the same. Because, it is nearly too late...

*The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg. Allen Lane, 2022.

Onwards and Upwards Forever?

The German poet, Heinrich Heine, was a born in 1797 and died in 1856. So he spent most of his life in the first half of the 19th century, when human, industrial and technological progress was seen as an unambiguous good. He wrote, "I believe in progress. I believe humanity is destined for happiness."

Sadly, in the 175 years since his death, we have come to understand that progress is far from being a universal good. It wasn't then, and it isn't now. Back then, all the industrial and technological progress came at a price ignored by many - the terrible working conditions of the industrial poor, and the exploitation of people and lands all over the world. 

Early next month, a book will be published by the Lindsey Press, called Cherishing the Earth - Nourishing the Spirit. I have been fortunate enough to get a sneak preview. Edited by Unitarian minister Maria Curtis, it presents a variety of responses by Unitarians - lay people, ministers and children - to the global ecological crisis we are currently facing. As it says in the publicity, "their insights range from the prophetic and political to the practical and intensely personal." And all the contributors are clear that we are in this situation because of our past and present blindness to the downsides of "progress" and that we urgently need to Do Something before it is too late. If it is not already too late... It is well worth a read.

I believe that if we are to save our beloved blue and green planet, we will need to make extensive changes to how we live our lives, far beyond putting stuff out for recycling. Each of us has a responsibility, both to the planet and to future generations, to both make greener choices as individuals and to find ways collectively to make a difference.

A Reminder of Eternity

Living near Northampton, which is almost as far from the sea in England as you can get, my experience of the sea is a rare treat. So I read this week's quotation, by German novelist Thomas Mann, with a certain amount of wistfulness:  "The sea is not a landscape, it is the experience of eternity."

I absolutely see what he means. When I do see the sea, my favourite thing to do is to sit and watch it, as the waves move up the shore and down again, in an endless rhythm. Like breathing. I can almost imagine that the waves are the breath of the sea, marking time for us.

I know they're not, that it's all to do with the pull of the moon, but sometimes I prefer to ignore the science and appreciate the poetry in motion that the sea represents. When my best friend and I went to Orkney for a week, back in July, we sat by the sea one day and these words came to my mind:

The small, polite waves

shimmy up the shore;

curtsey,

and then recede.

Below us, a

liver and white spaniel

poofles happily, tail wagging,

exploring the tideline

with questing nose.

I know that the sea has many moods and is to be respected, not taken for granted. But there is an eternal quality about it. It puts me in mind of one of my favourite quotes from Tom Stoppard's play, Travesties:  "It is this complete absence of bellicosity, coupled with an ostentatious punctuality of public clocks, that gives the place its reassuring air of permanence. Switzerland, one instinctively feels, will not go away. Nor will it turn into somewhere else."

Of course, this permanence of the sea, the sense of its being unchanging, eternal, always there, always going in and out, in and out is, sadly, an illusion. We know from the climate scientists that the polar ice caps are melting, that sea levels are rising. All of which is going to have a terrible effect on our planet. We all, as individuals and as a society, a civilisation, have a duty to do something about it before it is too late...