Seeing through the fog of The Dream

I said to a colleague today that I've got nearly no patience for resignation and cynicism about our future. I'm baffled to hear smart people sell out so quickly on hope* because of The American Dream: The Way Things Are.

To judge one dream as fantasy and buy into another as inevitable is a mistake.

There's an experience of freedom, enjoyment, and fulfillment available by creating an inspiring future together. But since the present is busy, distracting, and, for many, not all that bad, why fuss about a future we can't avoid anyway?

I think that black people have a different perspective to offer to this conversation. While all of us are conditioned to believe in the validity, feasibility, and nobility of achieving success approved by The American Dream, the collectively oppressed among us inevitably get a glimpse through the fog of that dream to the price it exacts. From our privileged perspective this dream isn't all that bad, it's just The Way Things Are.

But this dream is that bad, and enough of us are just lucky enough, so far, that we can relax into the illusion just a little bit longer.

We are born with the capacity to learn how to dream, and the humans who live before us teach us how to dream the way society dreams...And through this domestication we learn how to live and how to dream...the information from the outside dream is conveyed to the inside dream...We are so well trained that we are our own domesticator.

- Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard. This is difficult because there exists, all around us, an apparatus urging us to accept American innocence at face value and not to inquire too much.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

I know where diamonds come from; it ain't about the bling.

- Lyrics from Black Stacey by Saul Williams

It's absolutely not true that we need natural gas, coal or oil. (Source.) 

- Mark Jacobson, Stanford professor of engineering 

* Hope for a future in which all people have access to clean water, healthy food, great relationships, and hope that all human societies can live peacefully, sustainably, and enjoyable within non-human ecosystems.

Whether we're inspired or not

A friend attended a climate change talk this evening, and he expressed to me that he was left uninspired by it.

My response to him:

What I'm finding for myself is that my writing isn't great, my logic is sometimes flawed, my articulation is lacking, my knowledge is minimal, and my vision is blurred, but what matters most is that I keep talking, keep writing, keep speaking up. It's probably not very inspiring to most people, it's not very engaging, but it's what I've got. 

Identifying myself as part of the climate movement is giving context to all these mediocre actions I'm taking - and it's the biggest, most important fight out there today, in my opinion. 

So the talk tonight may have been uninspiring to you, but consider that it's up to you to find inspiration in the talk and the movement. The time has passed for us to be willing to wait for inspiration to get in action. The time is now for us to act, whether we're inspired or not. 

Thy soul is required of thee

Transcript of a talk I gave in Chapel on Wednesday 4.13.16:

Good morning. Thank you for your attention.

I'd prefer that it not be this way, me standing in front of you. I'd rather have watched Netflix than think and stress and draft and toss and jot notes and talk and stress and write some more.

But here I am. And (to borrow an idea from MLK) if the Creator held me in front of the tapestry of space and time itself, had me pick any time in which to live, I would choose this moment, a moment when humanity sits upon a precipice, not much realizing or caring that we're balancing the satisfaction of our own desires on one side and the satisfaction of the needs of life on the other.

Introduction

I'd like to start off by addressing the typo that isn't really a typo up on the screen behind me [A student was invited to respond to the following questions, and he responded beautifully]:

• Why is it spelled "Eaarth"? The name comes from the title of Bill McKibben's definitive 2009 book Eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet. Because humans have drastically and permanently altered the biosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere, it is far from the Earth it was before industrialization.
• Can you give some examples? Melting arctic ice, average global temperature up 1.5 deg F since 1880, increased energy available to storms, changing local climates like California's drought.
• What do you think about all this? I think the scariest part is the uncertainty. Scientists are usually conservative with their predictions, so we could be seeing severe climate change impacts as late as 100 years from now but as early as 30 years from now, and that's not including current superstorms like hurricane Sandy or South Sea storms.

My Boys 

[Picture of my kids on screen behind me.]

I began identifying myself as an environmentalist when I was in the 11th grade. But it wasn't until my older son up there on the right was born, that I began to deeply care. 

I wasn't all too interested in having kids just yet, but my wife was ready and I figured I could go along with it and give it my best shot. The day that little kid was born was the day my life completely altered - who I knew myself to be, others to be. I had felt strong feelings for people before, but I didn't know how deep love could go until I held him for the first time.

It's because of them that I care, it's their future and it's your future that has me stand up here today.

Be Skeptical

In school we're often telling you to think critically and to be skeptical. I request that for the next 10 minutes you be skeptical of your own thinking. I invite you to hear what I'm saying as valid and accurate.

Uncurling from the Fetal Position

The imagery of uncurling from the fetal position brings up two ideas to me. First, it brings up courage. The more data analyses I read or predictions I come across, the more I want to curl up under a blanket and helplessly wait for it all to get over with. But to uncurl, to stand up, and start opening my mouth to say things that might be uncomfortable for me or others, that's me doing whatever I can to make a difference.

The second idea it brings up is society's maturing from the infancy of materialism, of selfishness and greed, to responsibility, compassion, and true fulfillment.

To me there is no other conversation more important than this one - a conversation with the potential to transform who we are for ourselves, each other, and life itself.

And I'm woefully inadequate for the task. I'm too selfish, too uninformed, too ill-spoken to adequately communicate in few words the depth of the climate issue at hand, an issue we don't have much time to address. Decade zero. 

What I've decided to focus on is religion. A student reflected on December's climate change talk that he didn't understand what Christianity has to do with climate change. Religion can provide context for our lives, it can also provide guidance.

Religion 1: Buddhism

I choose to follow many Buddhist values.

Imagine a world with people free from the constraints of judgments, fear, selfishness, and suffering. Imagine a world of personal satisfaction, of compassion and thoughtfulness, of freedom to be however, wherever, with whomever.

Who I Am is nothing, emptiness, an experience. WHAM, I become something. I become a man, a father, a husband, a friend, a teacher. Nothing, emptiness, an experience. WHAM, I become a jerk, cynical, frightened, righteous. Nothing, emptiness, an experience. WHAM, I become a conduit, a commitment to the health and well-being of life itself.

How is your identity confining you to the sidelines of humanity's collective climate crisis?

What perspectives can you try on that provide a more positive few of our collective future?

Are you a taker, or are you a leaver?

Religion 2: Science

Science adds depth to my experience of the material world - such beauty in the depths of it. Understanding the mechanisms in the life of tree, the electromagnetic forces holding atoms and molecules together, the transfer of oxygen in the air I breathe to my blood and body deepens my experience of being alive.

But attempting to reduce the universe to only its material constituents is an immense error in the development of human thinking and ways of knowing. Studying rocks and cells and behaviors doesn't say a thing about my experience of life. Science is a piece of the puzzle, but it alone holds no answers. 

Religion 3: Christianity
I also choose to follow a number of christian values. I think Jesus is an excellent model for human behavior in many ways, and he had great things to say. I like the relationship between Taoism and Christianity - look up to transcend the self, and look side to side to bring others along for the ride.

Jesus gave us two commandments: love God above all else, and love our neighbor as ourself. There's something greater for us, an omega-point. I think that heaven is not a place, it's a state of being. As an individual I can look up, transcend who I've become to become newly. And I am a member of a community, and I am responsible for the well-being of my communities.

[Here I referenced the gospel reading for the chapel service, Luke 12:13-21. I recommend that you read it and see how it relates :)]

The messiahs we're waiting for

Whether we've acknowledged it or not, we're all expecting a savior from the ecological issues we've been collectively causing. We're waiting for:

• Technologists - that they'll figure out solutions.
• Philanthropists - that they'll throw money towards it and fund a solution.
• Economists - that they'll encourage and inspire policies that lead to market solutions.
• Politicians - that they'll stop fighting once the straits become dire.
• Sages - actually, they've already given their two cents about this. We haven't listened yet. For over 2,000 years the great sages have been giving us guidance how to live, and we still haven't listened.

The messiahs who are coming

You and me. We are the someone who's coming. There's nobody else who can step up and work for a solution right here right now.

Seek for Yourself Treasures in Heaven, not on Earth
I assert that if we look deep at what we really want, nearly all of us can point to these items on the screen. Unfortunately, the latest iPhone can't provide these things, but living according to Jesus' two commandments can. And living according to those two commandments can provide us all with those things, not just a privileged minority.

This issue is not about what we need to give up. It's not about not driving an SUV, and you shouldn't. This issue is not about using disposable cups, and you shouldn't. It's about living our lives according to our values and the world that's possible if we do.

We really are balancing life on a precipice, and it's not about what we need to give up. It's about what future we want for ourselves and each other.

These two commandments

Even if we disagree that there was innately anything special about Jesus beyond genetic predispositions, we can likely agree that he was a master. And apprentices, like us, can also develop mastery by taking the coaching.

Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Yang - Roots and Routes
How we think we need to live, deeply rooted in materialism, is destroying the biosphere of human and nonhuman life. Materialism, its distractions, we seem to value quite highly.

A relationship with the Eternal provides a direct route to personal spiritual ascendance: greater heights of personal satisfaction, clarity, enjoyment, vision, and effectiveness. Our distractions, both material and dogmatic, are shiny things that lead us off the path, the Way, of loving God above all else.

And I think that our willingness to disrupt the harmonic equilibrium of the biosphere is an affront to the Source. Impudence in the presence of the Sovereign. Where self-ascendency could lead to greater fulfillment, our materialistic detour stalls us in our reach for personal divinity.

Yin - Food, Dancing, and Hugs
Not only are our lives beginning to be noticeably and dramatically affected by human-induced climate change at the hands of an unrestrained fossil-fuel economy, our children's and their children's lives will be disastrously affected. And the first victims of the most impacting effects will be the poor; the less poor will be the second victims; and so on.

Where uncompromising capitalists see crises as opportunities, it's not typically the same for climate victims without other resources. Josh Fox, director, said at his movie showing in Baltimore a couple weeks ago, "The United States would be a different country today if the poor and brown fleeing New Orleans after Katrina were greeted with food, music, dancing, and hugs instead of shotguns."

All scientific climate simulations, generally presented with minimal sensationalism, point to climate change-related catastrophes occurring more and more frequently this century. And the poorest are impacted most harshly, first.

The depth of connection, compassion, empathy, and concern I feel for my own kids can provide me instruction on how to more fully love my neighbor. Assimilating a bit more of Jesus may too.

Tao - Taking the Coaching
I don't believe that Jesus was inherently divine any more than you and I, but I do believe we won't fulfill on that potential for ourselves if we don't take the coaching.