Vulnerable

I am feeling vulnerable today. It has been one of those weeks where my children have contacted me from three different locales and expressed the same concerns about the future of our world. None of them were prodded to do this and all raised the concerns early in a conversation about something unrelated and insignificant.

Each one said that they were worried about the earth. Each one made me cry a little and wonder if hope is something missing for many young people.

David Suzuki lives near me. He recently said in an interview that he is crying more often now and is worried about his grandchildren. He said he is shocked about how quickly things are moving now. Much quicker than he predicted. He once considered that he might be exaggerating a bit and now realizes that he really understated things. He also wished he'd given his children more hope!

I am sad for the honey bees that I love. 30% of the bees in British Columbia have died this spring. My honey man lost all of his bees. He can barely speak about it from grief. He cared for them so carefully and lovingly. They produced the sweetest mountain honey.

Two of my children have told me that they have chosen not to have children. They feel afraid.

I think those of us who went through the environmental movements of the sixties and seventies thought that we would have more influence and success. The first Green Peace meetings were in Vancouver and we spent time trying to stop the nuclear testing that was happening off this coast for years. some friends dedicated their entire young lives on trying to stop clear cut logging, fishing without limits and the destruction of our water.

I know that many of our children felt a bit frozen by this knowledge and that we tried then to introduce the alternatives to disaster and create a positive environment for hope.

Many things have changed for the better. People eat organic food that is locally grown. We have neighbourhood farmers markets and gardens. Many people ride bikes here. Enough that the local corporate supermarket has to stock organics and bike lanes have been set up all over the city. Last week we held car free days all over Vancouver and thousands of people showed up.

I see many young people working towards the alternatives and having fun at it. I think they are more thoughtful than we were.

Bruce Elkin wrote an article in his blog Create What Matters Most. He is concerned that we combat fear at the same time as we create alternatives to maintain our focus and our energies. Bruce was the coordinator of the free school I attended in Calgary when I was a kid.
He was around for some of my early activism. He has live it lifelong.

I think, though, that we were really good at playing and making noise and having fun.
I will remind my sons of that. Cynicism isn't always helpful. But it certainly doesn't help to ignore the big old picture.

David Suzuki http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/gardencontest/

Bruce Elkin http://createwhatmattersmost.blogspot.com/