This has caught up with me. That my washing machine was not functioning properly didn't matter for long time because I could take the clothes around the corner to laundromat. Now I'm caught in my house -- I mean safely sheltering in place -- with a washing machine that has to be coaxed to do its job. And you would think I've learned my lesson, but no, there's still work I don't want to do and that isn't getting done as promptly as it should.
I raise this issue here because it seems to me that pretty much everybody in the world is facing this problem. We have to change the way we live to avoid mass extinction, possibly including our own species, and it is actually something we can't put off. I read in The New York Times about a study of the risks we face from climate change. If we hit the fateful increase of two degrees centigrade, we could face a sudden catastrophic loss of species that form our ecosystem, possibly including our own. Reporting on a study that appeared in the scientific journal Nature, the Times article said:
The study predicted that large swaths of ecosystems would falter in waves, creating sudden die-offs that would be catastrophic not only for wildlife, but for the humans who depend on [them].
"For a long time things can seem OK and then suddenly they're not," said Alex L. Pigot, a scientist at University College London and one of the study's authors. "Then, it's too late to do anything about it because you've already fallen over this cliff edge."This is my experience of tolerating a dysfunctional washing machine. It was fine until suddenly it wasn't and I couldn't do anything to fix it. While the problem of my washing machine is not threatening my life, our collective threat to the world-as-we-know-it is a threat to you and me and all seven billion of us humans and gadzillions of other living beings.
The coronavirus that we're grappling with is a both a warning of troubles to come and a roadmap for the changes we can make and what will happen if we do. In this short time of human retreat. BBC reported, animals have started to embrace more parts of the world and the skies and waters have become clear. Our changes have had a rapid and positive impact on the state of the ecosystem.
I have learned how optional much of the busy-ness of my life was and that I could make do with much, much less. Yesterday I planned to record a lesson on making brownies for the University of Orange Digital Campus. When I pulled out the box, I found it contained only one egg. I thought, "There has to be a substitute for eggs on the internet." I found that the small amount of applesauce in my frig was a perfect replacement for the other egg. The brownies were not quite the same, but they proved the point that I could make do with what I had.
In this regard, one of the greatest things that's happened to me is that Amazon Prime is not one day delivery. In fact, who knows how many days Amazon will be. That leaves plenty of time to look around and find alternatives. The other great thing is that conferences and conventions are canceled and I don't have to fly here and there. I can sit in my house and join meetings by Zoom. That frees up time to spend watching the happy animals frolicking in my backyard. The squirrels in particular are getting so fat because they don't have to scurry off every time people come!
In this sudden break, I have gotten to see that the way my life was woven into the world contributed to the intolerable burden humans place on the ecosystem. I have been forced to live more mindfully for now. but what will happen when the all-clear sounds? The temptation will be to forget that this ever happened and to act as if my old life were acceptable. But my old life, which depended on excess consumption of many, many things, contributed to looming catastrophe. Better to change and avoid the cliff's edge of our species and all others!
Resisting the status quo will take backbone. The other thing I've seen in this period is great courage, not only the sublime courage of the essential workers, but also the bravery of leaders who showed the way forward. I am reminded of the photo of healthcare executive Bruce Greenstein who offered an elbow to Donald Trump, rather than shake his hand. What role models these people have been! The pathmakers of ecological respect will be the ones to watch for in the months to come.
Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault pointed out that the word "courage" comes from the French, coeur, which means "heart." She said that it is the clarity that we get from love that gives us the strength to do what we have to do. As one of the tasks of getting through this moment in time, my colleagues Lourdes Rodriguez, Nupur Chaudhury and I suggested that we needed to "turn on the love." It now seems even more useful, as the more love we feel now, the more courage we'll have to turn away from the status quo towards a new way of life, in harmony with the Earth. I put this sign on my door and in my yard to remind passersby and me of that great truth!
