Rights and responsibilities, hope and despair

[GliderGuider]

I've always thought Carolyn Baker had something very important to tell us about uncompromising awareness and the despair that it can generate. I know that copping to despair isn't very fashionable, but here is an excerpt from a guest article that makes the case that it's essential.

THE YEAR OF THE BEAR: REFLECTIONS ON THE DAUNTING REALITIES OF 2008, By Carla Royal

I start New Year's morning as I do every morning: on the computer reading the news about the state of the planet. It's not good. It's not good. I read about residential real estate woes. I read James Kunstler's dire forecast for 2008. I read that the scientists are saying that the Arctic is screaming. I read that the stock market may be poised on the edge of collapse. I read about the end of the world as we know it. And more. Much more.

I decide to call my friends, Tim and Sally.

We talk awhile. I tell them about the documentary, In the Light of Reverence, that Karen and I watched the other night. It's a film about three different Native American tribes and their relationship to places they consider sacred. I tell them how watching this movie was powerful and moving and infuriating. We white people have an incredible tendency, penchant, for disconnection; from ourselves and from the natural world. One Native American scholar from the Lakota tribe talked about a fundamental difference in world views between white American people and Native American people. We white Americans tend to think in terms of our "rights." I have a right to freedom, to happiness, to this piece of land, to my individuality, to my "stuff", to my way of life. How telling that our own government has declared that our way of life is not negotiable! Therefore, as a white American, I have a right to have my ski resort on sacred ground. In stark contrast, Native Americans tend to think in terms of "responsibility". They ask: What is my responsibility to this life, to this community, to this piece of land, to the world at large?

I was so struck by this contrast. So struck. I have sat with this contrast in my head for days now. Rights versus Responsibility.

So I'm thinking and thinking about this "Rights" versus "Responsibility" thing. What would happen if I, and you, and we all, began to shift from a "rights" mindset to a "responsibility" mindset? What would that mean for me, for you? Practically? Today?

Last week I read an article called Hallowing our Descent by Sharon Astyk.

How might we begin to "hallow" our descent? The first thought would be to recognize our companions entering into the future - name them, "peak energy" "Climate change" and "Depletion" and call them what they are - our future, and our companions for the long haul. Because once we acknowledge them, we might be able to get to know them, to get over our deepest fears that if we look too closely at the future we will not be able to bear it, and recognize and go on from there. Perhaps if we saw them as our companions in the future, we might be able to get over our own sense of personal punishment - the belief, for example, that our suffering is particular, and deeply important. That is, we might be able to recognize that turning the heat down to 55 is not an unjust cruelty, but simply what is asked of us, our share of the burden. Perhaps we might even develop a sense of humor about it.

Make Peak Oil, climate change and depletion my companions? For the long haul? Acknowledge them? Get to know them? Is she crazy?

I don't think so. No, I think there is wisdom in her words. These "companions" ARE with us for the long haul.

We must walk into that awareness and come to a place of acceptance. As we go through the grief and despair, we can begin to move out of a sense of entitlement and into a place of responsibility and empowerment. We can begin to step into the work to which the big black Bear is calling us. We need to ask ourselves, each and every day, what is being asked of us. What is my share of the burden? For what and to whom am I responsible?

Something new IS emerging. This something new is unlike anything we humans who live now have ever seen. But maybe the Boulders have seen something like it. Maybe the Streams have. Maybe the Mountains have. Maybe if we listen they will awaken us and remind us.

Take a moment to read the whole piece. It might make a difference to you too.