Transitions and disruptions

Change can happen for different reasons and different time scales. The urgent call for climate action and a change to a ‘renewable’ economy has been met with opposition and a reluctance to ‘give up’ existing systems and industries. We can’t afford to change too quickly less people lose jobs and break the economy. We can’t move to electric cars because how could we go on long distance weekend trips?

It has been frustrating and difficult to maintain hope with so much political obstruction. As a scientist it has been particularly disheartening for public figures to distrust institutional science. Yet I understand the benefits of a well-managed gradual change process that brings everyone along with a clearly articulated vision.

I had a vigorous discussion with a (distant) relative on the need for the prophetic voice to show that point in the distance that we should be heading. We don’t want to be too quick to get there lest we leave people behind but we shouldn’t be hesitating to move either. Scouts are needed to go first and test the waters and say it is ok for everyone to come. We need strong leadership to set a long term direction, to support the scouts to keep them safe and even to extol them as our adventurers. The ‘early adopters’ that put their neck out and take risks can lose economically but if everyone waited before it was safe to leave our status quo we wouldn’t get anywhere.

And then comes along the great disruptor – the virus that has sent the market into freefall, smashed travel and global tourism, closed schools and events, and who knows how much further into our way of life it will encroach. Our response? Panic shopping, political stimulus packages, increased racial tension to anyone bearing a Chinese resemblance, and much cleaning of hands.

Without going further down this track I’ll make two observations:

1. We can change abruptly if there is will to do so. We can have a stimulus package that quickly. What an opportunity to provide jobs and create activity in the direction we want to go into.

2. Fear on a community scale can send us to very dark places. I’ve often wondered how far we are to being led by a modern equivalent of an Adolf or Pol Pot down a similar path. Our racist undertones can easily surface - ask any Chinese friend if they are viewed any differently in the past few months.

We don’t know how 2020 will play out but the active hope philosophy is needed more than ever to prevent fear being mis-used. The elderly are at great risk, jobs are at risk, our wellbeing is being put to the test. My hope is to seek out the opportunities to reshape our future and for our community to be bonded with goodwill. Some further reading from Sojourners: https://sojo.net/articles/time-act-community-now

Photo: the water lilly (subject I’m painting at the moment).

Giving up work for lent

I still take the season of lent, leading up to Easter, as a time to reconsider life and make at least one adjustment. For many it is what we are going to sacrifice or give up, though theologically it is more about reconnecting to be able to the resurrection story more fully.

After working 7 days straight and having Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent slip past me, I thought that this year I would ‘give up work’ - well in the sense that I will take every Friday off at least. The intention is to do something different each Friday in restoring creativity, physical, relationships or just be. So last week I was in the Kwinana garden reshaping Anne’s future orchard. This was followed by a sound meditation but I knew this wouldn’t go so well as the compulsion to sleep when lying down in the dark at 7pm on a Friday night will always be strong. At least I had Anne next to me to gently wake me when I was about to enter snoring mode. If not for sleeping it would have been a valuable experience.

As for the next few Fridays, the intention is to break open the paint brushes and see what creativity will emerge; reconnect with the swimming pool; take my new (old) bike to the beach for its first time; play guitar; catch up on reading books that I’ve been meaning to get to like Dark Emu; some writing; buying some fruit/vege in bulk and try cooking up some preserves; and visiting friends who may also have a Friday off; and have time to be spontaneous. The list sounds like I need more than just a Friday off! I’ll see how I go and what may emerge.

The counter story for this is the role of work in life. For five days each week I invest my effort into meteorology and  perhaps it is well overdue that the balance is not right for me any more. Perhaps this could be a catalyst for something more permanent post lent. At the very least it is an opportunity to try a new  perspective.

Vietnam reflections – seeing with new eyes

Sometimes you have to get away to gain perspective. On my recent cycling tour to Vietnam, one of my greatest pleasures was experiencing passing interactions with the locals. How generous was their spirit? Smiles and hellos came easily and frequently, To see how difficult their history has been, how hard they work but then how seriously they take  hospitality and caring for families.

The country is in a great transition as the capitalist market overtakes the nominal communist philosophy. Yet the Buddhist heart remains – compassion, acceptance, discipline and kindness was demonstrated every day.

We also got a taste of their violent past and for sure they carry the memories and consequences daily but they are such a resilient people that they remain hopeful for their children and understand how important the future is for their children.

This 70 year old man was seeding rice as he has done for so many years. Yet when we stopped to take photos he was kind enough to come over and demonstrate and talk through his work. The new challenge is convincing younger people to pursue agriculture as an option – the work is too hard apparently!

 

Buy nothing Christmas

Despite being awash with the advertising of Christmas, we have decided to have a ‘buy nothing Christmas’ this year. Yes very counter cultural but quite liberating. Of course it brings a new challenge: with what gifts shall I bring?  – a throwback to my little drummer boy days. In that case shall I play my drum for him was the answer, but what is it now? I’ve been mulling this over for some time. Anne has been busy making things as gifts and I could follow her line and make some things but somehow. 

For me it is taking some boys to the beach who don’t often get the chance. My one gift that has made a difference. Their smiles were enough for me.

The alternative economy – seeing with new eyes

Three things passed me by this last week that all centred on the economy. 1. The media analysis of the government quandary that the low interest rates are failing to stimulate growth in consumer spending and that this is a very bad thing. 2. Watching the documentary Tomorrow with friends at the One World Centre  on Friday night; and 3. Richard Rohr’s meditations on Economy: Old and New.

While not new themes to me, the congruence was noticeable. The demands for the economy to be based on perpetual growth is failing and we need to recreate a new economy which values the natural world and safeguards peoples livelihood to prevent a collapse across societies. The excellent doco Tomorrow showed positive examples around the world on 5 dominant themes Agriculture; Energy; Economics; Democracy; and Education. Under Economics there was the example of a French envelope/packaging company that deliberately didn’t pay dividends to shareholders and invested all profits into the wellbeing of staff and the workplace. There wasn’t much difference between the highest and lowest paid workers; they planted four trees for every one tree that was used for making paper; changed to water soluble inks without any toxins; installed solar energy and recycled water amongst many other innovative practices that made working there enjoyable and demand was increasing. There were many other examples of localised and cooperative ventures across all the topics.

From Richard Rohr’s writings: The title of Sharif Abdullah’s book, Creating a World that Works for All, is an invitation to us all to participate. He invites us to a lifelong practice of the better, the art of being a “Mender” who consciously seeks out opportunities to practice interconnection and interdependence with other beings, which are indeed foundational to any new economy. Abdullah writes:Being a Mender, an activist for an inclusive society, is a spiritual discipline. We practice a different kind of spirituality: the spirituality of turbulent times. Working to alleviate suffering is the way we practice our faith. We try not to act from anger or fear. We act because, in this life we have been given, we believe we can help make things better. Acting out of compassion to lessen suffering and improve the lives of others is the way we celebrate the Spirit. Knowing that each of our acts, however small, builds the vitality of the Web of Life brings us joy, satisfaction, and power.

Another great sounding book An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture by Peter Block, John McKnight, and Walter Brueggemann describes the shifts in thinking that could create a post-consumer economy. Instead of centralised wealth and power and profits, to be neighbourly, localised communal and cooperative culture.

Such inspirational examples and writings challenge me at the practical level about purchase decisions. My conditioning to buy the cheapest has added to mass production, taking from natural world in the most ‘efficient’ way, eroding worker’s conditions/rights and separating me from the provider. Lots of challenges there.

The Courage of Kindness

It is a conditioning of life especially in my life of a scientist to have an analytical approach – continually assessing and positioning; to be sceptical of any claims or opinions until there is supporting evidence. Certainly this works well in the tasks for my day job but for relationships including those in professional life this approach doesn’t work so well. 

The third stage of the Active Hope spiral is ‘to see with new eyes’. Every now and then I’m reminded of the power of kindness and compassion and to be challenged to see the world through the ‘soft gaze’ of compassion and kindness. But what does it mean to live each day with kindness – is it seeking out someone to provide acts of charity to, some unsuspecting soul that I can provide assistance to? Well that might be the consequence but it is much deeper than that – to see the good in everyone that requires both strength and gentleness and to leave behind any sense of judgement and critiquing as is our modern way. Kindness is having the ability to speak with love, listen with patience and act with compassion. I like the concept of kindness creates a ripple that extends far and wide with no logical end. It may be reflected back but it may just as easily eventually dissipate. We just put it out there with no expectations.

Well I’ve been finding out just how hard it is. One day recently I started the day primed to have that soft gaze of kindness but there it was laid bare soon afterwards on my ride to work when a cyclist directed some unwarranted anger towards me and by instinct I reacted with my hackles raised for that brief interaction. It is one thing to show kindness when all is going well but when poked and provoked can I respond with kindness. Mmm…that takes time to be attentive and persevere.

Paying it forward

In a recent edition of Dumbo Feather there was a focus on the movement to pay it forward. People are encouraged to make random gestures of kindness to strangers. This actually happened to me a little while ago when my lunch time walking crew  ventured to a coffee place in West Perth and were offered a free coffee from someone who had paid for it earlier. I was taken aback but inwardly pleased. I was reminded of the parable of the talents and to use what gifts we have for the benefit of others.

Apparently the neurological studies of kindness and paying it forward clearly show the health benefits and positive well-being impacts.  If it only it was a bit easier…

The Dalai Lama sums it up: This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.

Or that other philosopher Dr Seuss adds: Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

Kindness as a series of unending ripples.

Fires, land clearing and the value of nature

Like many, I have been dwelling on the tragedy of the extensive bushfires in the past weeks especially having been in Brisbane these past two weeks where the smoke is a continual reminder. Taking the active hope approach which forces one to start with gratitude and I’m in awe at the beauty and diversity of our bush and marvelling at the ability of nature to deliver such force yet to show ultimate resilience it seems by the response over time to recover. This has always seemed to be the case yet there is increasing evidence of the stress we are putting on nature to keep being resilience in the face of our ongoing impact.

It is somewhat easy to sit in the pain of the moment hearing for personal stories of loss and suffering and imagining the destruction of the bush on such a massive scale across so many habitats, the animals and birds, the fragile environments of rocky outcrops, etc. While I haven’t been to most of the specific locations of the fires, I’m reminded of the impact of the  fires in my local landscape.

 The media has focussed on the human aspect which is understandable yet when it turns to nature it seems to be more at the emotional heartstrings of a koala rescue and not much detail on the broader environmental concerns. The climate change aspect seems to be a media favourite to encourage polarising and politicising even when the science is so clear cut which further exasperates me.

Amongst the despair I’ve dwelt on the tragic ongoing land clearing, not just in the Amazon but also here in Australia. In the context of prosecutions over illegal clearing, a farmer put it clearly when explaining that the value of his property increases if he were to clear it. That simple comment demonstrates the value, or lack of it we place on our bushland. We reduce the value of our bush to being an economic commodity. Even in the fire context, the value of losses were almost always in the losses of machinery, houses and general infrastructure. It seems we just expect the bush to heal itself over time and in the past that is what happens but the ongoing stress puts that into question.

But seeing with new eyes (the third stage in the active hope spiral), we need to stand up and acknowledge the true value of our natural world. Some councils are beginning to do this by putting a dollar value on each tree  such as the City of Perth Tree Amenity Valuation Method:

Tree Value = Basic Monetary Value X Tree Size X Aesthetics X Locality X Species X Special Species X Form X Condition X Habitat X Significance.”

Of course it is far more complex than that but at least it is a start in the right direction.  

I’m still sitting with the broader question of how can we move towards having a farm that has higher value by preserving or increasing bushland than one that is fully cleared. Even with a disregard to the spiritual and moral factors of bush perseveration, will we learn to appreciate the connections to water table health, pollination and soil wellbeing?  

The final stage of the spiral is that of ‘going forth’ – what actions am I called on to take? This seems more difficult right now given the contagious feelings of overwhelming helplessness that seems prevalent. It has certainly re-affirmed my motivation to support land regeneration through Trillion Trees locally in Perth both donating and being involved in plantings. But for now I will continue to sit with that challenge and maybe just continue conversations of what can be a pathway forward.