It’s been fed back to me (offline) that some of you here are finding my relentless negativity too much. I know - have been conscious of that too (i really have had a bit of a dip), and I am sorry.
So in an attempt to be more positive again: we had a lovely rainbow 🌈 here in #Eastbourne. I shared a picture on our street WhatsApp group and so many others shared theirs and we decided to see it as a sign of hope! #Community #Hope #MagicInTheCity
#Eastbourne #Community #Hope #MagicInTheCity
Honestly, the replies to this ⬆️from you: 💚💚💚💚
Feeling a lot of gratitude for this community and the potentials of what we can do here, strengthening each other in so many ways.
Honesty is always the goal, whether it's positive or negative, imo.
I thank you for being an honest person.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you for saying that. In fact this post was somewhat dishonest: I don’t actually feel any real #Hope; not in that big #Hope way. But it WAS nice to have this moment of shared joy; and to have this beauty in the sky, just there, free, above our ordinary street. In fact, i had the same last week when leaving work, walking to station: amazing evening sky! Another moment of generosity and possibility (in a pretty gritty urban setting). It’s not big hope, but something.
We are living in unprecedented times.
Humans have been fvcking with the planet long enough that we are now in the find out phase.
For those who are aware, it's a jumble of emotions that can rise and fall like a roller coaster.
For me, acceptance of our situation levels out those valleys and peaks. Freeing myself from the angst and worry about false solutions that will not solve anything, and letting go of false hope that feeds the angst and worry bc it never comes true.
It's this freedom from angst and worry that allows me to focus on what's important in the here and now, to find joy everyday in what we still have, in who is really important to us, and to keep working towards obtainable goals on things and issues that matter most to me. Bc it's never too late to do that.
It also steels me for what is yet to come.
One of my pinned posts is by Jordan Perry on 14 actions to help us deal with these unprecedented times that I found to be helpful.
There are still wondrous things all around us and reasons to be joyful and grateful every day. Some days they plain to see, some days we have to search for them, but they are still there.
Wishing you find rainbows every day, whether they are visible or not. ✌️
Thank you, Pauline; I'm glad you found value in it.🙏
Many aren't ready to. And that's okay too.
This is one of my short term goals; attempting to show ppl that doom is not gloom, and happiness during dark times is still possible.
✌️
@annaf 💚 yes - exactly this. ❤️🩹And i know what you mean about needing others to express what you feel- I just had that sense with a tweet I read by Julia Steinberger 5 min ago (i have been straying back to X a tiny bit lately, I have to confess, just because i miss the direct global connections. I do worry about how federation prevents that here)
@pvonhellermannn I don’t find you to be as described, Pauline.
On the subject of hope, back in 2018 I read an article by Derrick Jensen – https://orionmagazine.org/article/beyond-hope/. There’s much I’ve found helpful in there, especially the line which says:
“I am a complex enough being that I can hold in my heart the understanding that we are really, really fucked, and at the same time that life is really, really good.”
@urlyman THANK YOU for this. Honestly. So much in here to love but also wanted to highlight just two parts. Firstly this:
“When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to “hope” at all. We simply do the work. We make sure salmon survive. We make sure prairie dogs survive. We make sure grizzlies survive. We do whatever it takes.”
And then also the very first paragraph, as this really chimes with what I have been wanting to to articulate:
@pvonhellermannn I find your toots very useful. :) Accurate knowledge about problems is a step towards handling them. @urlyman Jensen's 'Beyond Hope' is very useful. Better do a small positive action that, based on accurate knowledge and networking with others, will tend to help the overall system, rather than do nothing and just hope.
These points are relevant to the other existential risk to civilisation (apart from the #ClimateEmergency): #NuclearArmageddon [1].
[1] https://tomdispatch.com/full-speed-ahead-on-the-global-titanic
@boud good article. Thanks. The bit about Oppenheimer struck a chord https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/111906374557864655
Part 1 was about reframing risk away from the probability of storm and towards the probability of *harm*: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/look-to-the-ground/ Part 2 borrowed from my guardian angel, Ursula Franklin, to recenter risk on the living: https://everythingchanges.us/blog/whose-risks-whose-benefits/
Bollocks. You are inspirational without being maudlin. More please.
Pauline von Hellermann
504BatteryDr
Anna F
Jonathan Schofield
Boud
Will Tuladhar-Douglas