200419 hope
april 19, sunday
in this crisis, our response as nations has surprised me in its concern for human life over economies and politics. governments, no, it's more personal than that here - we are seeing their faces - the men and women who oversee our social systems, are shutting down profit sources to protect lives and giving money to their citizens to keep them in food and shelter, and to support healthcare. i suppose this is not the first or only time we have put people first, but it feels like it because it is bigger than ever before, and seems to exclude the profit angle of emergency measures we have seen in the past. mr. trudeau, mr. ford, and leaders all over the world are standing up and trying to stem the death, healthcare, and societal toll of this tidal wave.
it is a measure of human caring that surprises me when i think of the tendency of business and government to bulldoze the planet and its inhabitants and its future to line their own pockets, to build more cars, factories, and fossil fuel machinery, to ensure their re-election, while the air becomes unbreathable and the climate wreaks havoc with storms and floods, extinctions and destruction.
certainly at the community level there is kindness and brilliant innovation. neighbours are greeting each other from across the road, "how are you? keep well!". front-line workers, delivery people, nurses, care-givers, doctors, bus drivers, corner-store and grocery store owners, employees and volunteers, are daily putting themselves and their own families at risk so that the rest of us can stay safe. they are inventing new customer services and protections, new store designs and even whole new storefronts with their own hands and ideas. these are the local heroes. we have known many of these neighbourhood service workers and storekeepers for years and they know our faces, too. their inventiveness, courage, and kindness amaze and humble me.
it is hopeful, if it's real. perhaps we are seeing the "sea change" that is needed to save the planet and humanity. will we permanently turn our faces from profit and measure our wealth in people instead of money? will the underpaid and unpaid workers who keep our day-to-day lives going become our coinage, not our shiny cars, private jets and latest fashions? the children, whom we claim to be our future and whom we say are important: will we finally properly honour and recompense their teachers and caregivers? begin to protect the world they will inherit?
will this new humanity survive the pandemic's end and the onset of the new normal? the old normal is history. the lathe will have turned and a new world will emerge.*
* the lathe reference derives from the novel, the lathe of heaven, by ursula leguin.
in this crisis, our response as nations has surprised me in its concern for human life over economies and politics. governments, no, it's more personal than that here - we are seeing their faces - the men and women who oversee our social systems, are shutting down profit sources to protect lives and giving money to their citizens to keep them in food and shelter, and to support healthcare. i suppose this is not the first or only time we have put people first, but it feels like it because it is bigger than ever before, and seems to exclude the profit angle of emergency measures we have seen in the past. mr. trudeau, mr. ford, and leaders all over the world are standing up and trying to stem the death, healthcare, and societal toll of this tidal wave.
it is a measure of human caring that surprises me when i think of the tendency of business and government to bulldoze the planet and its inhabitants and its future to line their own pockets, to build more cars, factories, and fossil fuel machinery, to ensure their re-election, while the air becomes unbreathable and the climate wreaks havoc with storms and floods, extinctions and destruction.
certainly at the community level there is kindness and brilliant innovation. neighbours are greeting each other from across the road, "how are you? keep well!". front-line workers, delivery people, nurses, care-givers, doctors, bus drivers, corner-store and grocery store owners, employees and volunteers, are daily putting themselves and their own families at risk so that the rest of us can stay safe. they are inventing new customer services and protections, new store designs and even whole new storefronts with their own hands and ideas. these are the local heroes. we have known many of these neighbourhood service workers and storekeepers for years and they know our faces, too. their inventiveness, courage, and kindness amaze and humble me.
it is hopeful, if it's real. perhaps we are seeing the "sea change" that is needed to save the planet and humanity. will we permanently turn our faces from profit and measure our wealth in people instead of money? will the underpaid and unpaid workers who keep our day-to-day lives going become our coinage, not our shiny cars, private jets and latest fashions? the children, whom we claim to be our future and whom we say are important: will we finally properly honour and recompense their teachers and caregivers? begin to protect the world they will inherit?
will this new humanity survive the pandemic's end and the onset of the new normal? the old normal is history. the lathe will have turned and a new world will emerge.*
* the lathe reference derives from the novel, the lathe of heaven, by ursula leguin.
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