Salvation
Yesterday I thought about our proclivity to desire something for nothing. The simple minded way of putting it: free is good. If not entirely free, so minimal in cost, that no thought need be given to “what it is going to cost me.” I am no exception to this rule…
Except, the adult version of myself knows that everything requires effort, the expenditure of energy in its formation. The cup of coffee on my table required that coffee beans be harvested, perhaps by hand. The beans then transported to a place where they were graded and assessed a value. Workers were be paid, as well as a landowner. The buyer perhaps a middle man, sold the beans to Starbucks. Beans were transported to this location at 3rd and State in Geneva Illinois, where they were ground and brewed before being poured into this cup. That is a lot of energy expense, of effort at many levels requisite to a single cup of coffee. At every level others are compensated. Transportation, interior design architects, graphic designers, procurement executives, and baristas… Put simply: no cost, no cup of coffee. This is not a mere feature of culture, that could be otherwise, that I could shut my eyes and imagine differently. The chain of cause and effect, the energy exchange variously described entails nothing less than everything, a metaphysical principle of reality. Every circumstance involves a matrix of expense. There is no free lunch.
All of that is to say climate change, atmospheric and oceanic warming of our circumstance is real, a transformation visibly accelerating. Extreme weather events that devastate sections of the United States as well as entire nations in other parts of the world will grow in extent and intensity. I ought not to imagine that I will be lucky, find myself in circumstances propitious to avoid being involved. There’s no way around this storm.
The only way forward, the prospect for surviving to the “other side” demands that one “turn into” this storm. In other words, I must prepare myself mentally, spiritually, emotionally to pay whatever cost is intrinsic to developing a earth-first attitude, viewpoint. Every decision, big and small must be made in view of the consequence to the Earth. How to decrease the heat load, the co2 addition to atmosphere? Live locally, reduce unnecessary long distance travel, learn to find pleasure in relationships, in the life of the mind, practice kindness… This is not esoteric knowledge. The drumbeat of amusements on offer from a seeming endless variety of media outlets, cloud, distract my intention. And I lose focus upon what is necessary.
I am I and my circumstance;
and if I do not save it,
I do not save myself.
–José Ortega y Gasset, Meditation on Quixote
