Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [39]
Such shock may then open us to the surge of energy lying dormant—that pure, protective rage we can transform into exuberant defense of our beautiful earth under siege.
Yes, there is much we do not and perhaps cannot know about our chances of success. But there is much we can know:
Humanity is coming to understand nature’s fundamental laws and the fatal consequences of ignoring them. Rather than triggering panic, though, coming to accept nature’s boundaries may bring huge relief. If children need boundaries to feel safe, maybe we’ll find we all do. Nature offers us real, non-arbitrary guidelines, and as we align ourselves with her—because we ourselves are part of nature—we may also move into greater alignment with one another. Could this shift, truly trusting nature’s laws, ultimately release the grip of self-created scarcity, allowing us to experience real abundance for the first time?
This takes courage, and courage is contagious. Many are also coming to know that just as we need not fight the natural world, we need not fight our own nature. We can trust our deep, in-born needs to “connect and affect.” We can trust our ability to walk with fear. We can even trust our capacity to let go of long-held ways of seeing in order to structure our societies to bring out the best in us while protecting us from the worst.
Ultimately, if we accept ecology’s insights that we exist in densely woven networks, then we must also accept that every choice we make sends out ripples, even if we’re not consciously choosing. The choice we have is not whether, but only how, we change the world.
Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored sixteen books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Award. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined. For more information, visit www.smallplanet.org and www.foodfirst.org.
With the Turn of a Key, I Can Make a Difference
NEIGE CHRISTENSON
One fine afternoon last spring I was sitting in my old Volvo waiting for my son to get out of school. I was a bit early, so I’d parked in my favorite spot, with my windows open to the woods and a view of the school entrance, and settled in with my journal to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. Just then, a spotless white Escalade pulled up next to me like a cruise ship docking, and I noticed my mind formulating an instant story about my neighbor. As I waited impatiently for her to cut her engine after parking, my journal entry became a rant about her and all the other people who buy, and then idle, their SUV’s. How can she idle so thoughtlessly, as if her actions made no environmental impact, as if her vehicular living-room with its TV and air-conditioning completely insulated her from the impending global warming crisis all around her? For fifteen minutes we sat side by side and worlds apart, she on her cell phone, and me rehearsing but not delivering a strident and holier-than-thou speech about why she should turn her engine off (and also completely change her entire lifestyle). After that, I started to scan the school parking