World In Crisis
With all this unprecedented disaster and catastrophe and serious change, it is easy for anxiety and despair to sink their talons in. And that's before you add whatever thafuck is enacting a similar impact for you personally. We knew this revolution would be televised but nobody said there'd be days like this, to quote the sages.
Whether you call it solastalgia or good old fashioned overwhelm, the pain of our worlds in crisis is always hard to digest. Some days it can feel like the only option is to switch off or tune out. And that is precisely what institutions in denial and pains in the arse alike are banking on. So how to stay present to all that is unfolding and still place ourselves on the evolutionary side of history in the making?
I have been racking my addled brain and raking my heavy heart for months musing on this. Without lightwashing and vain hope. With an engagement that is contribution rather than cross to bear. And an answer has begun to shimmer, like a handful of gold dust sprinkled from above.
Yes, we are in the thick of global change that naturally rattles our own cages. Yes, everything is shifting in tandem. Yes, we can all make big little choices that make a huge difference. But perhaps rather than proving destruction and being swallowed up by its grief and terror, we could instead grab firmer hold of the markers that show the evolution taking place on our watch. Ardently and loudly champion their appearance for others. Focus on what we want to grow.
If you look for them, there they are. Socially. Politically. Environmentally. Personally. Tiny wisps of breakthrough and giant crumbling of old ways. Truth roaring out of the well unable to be shoved back in. Initiatives and activism and new voices leading a chorus of outrage. The revolution is a work in progress, well underway.
We are taught in times of disaster to look for the helpers. There we find our humanity. Now we also need to help ourselves. To make and then to seek out the shifts, large and small, that are propelling us into a brave new world.
The more you look, the more you see.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy
Clip of Rita Hayworth as muse Terpsichore in Down to Earth (1947)
Words c. Kerrie Basha 2020