They say you can boil a frog alive as long as you heat it slowly. It won’t notice the gradual change in temperature until it’s too late to jump out. This tells me we’re not the only ones who can be caught unawares by something that’s been building for a while — something we can sense, but don’t want to acknowledge.
Not that we haven’t been told — whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, there are people who’ve been crying out for awareness, for a change of attitude, ownership, and power, and for a corresponding shift in who decides and how we decide. Those who are most impacted, the marginalized — whether poor, people of color, women, immigrants — are shouting loud and clear that nothing is equal, the costs are borne in so lopsided a fashion as to be farcical, if it weren’t tragic.
Spring in the Northern hemisphere is a time of renewal and rebirth. From bare branches, blossoms appear, the birds sing and the bees hum. This is a gift, unfailing, every year. We do not need to earn this grace, but we can be thankful for it, and let it instruct us. We can acknowledge that all we have, in the end, comes from the Earth. On this Earth Day 2020, can we say that we are listening? What should we be listening for?
First, the promise: there is enough. We can all eat, and sleep secure.
Second, the wonder: life is amazing. We are surrounded by light-years’ worth of life’s absence in every direction, but our island of shining blue is so cozy, so hospitable, that we’ve grown complacent. The winter does a little to remind us of what a less hospitable climate could be like. As we rejoice in the Spring, let’s remember that good weather is a gift.
Third, the interconnectedness: we are all in this together. We need each other. We need the bees and the birds. There are no boundaries that don’t get crossed.
What responsibilities might come with these marvelous gifts? As participants in the Life on Earth game, how do we play to win?
In a word: cooperate. Distinguish needs from wants. Find solutions that don’t do harm. Honor each individual. Plan for the future. Make decisions with those affected, not for them.
But not only this. We are at a place in our history where we have to acknowledge just how much accumulated injustice has been piling up for centuries. Far from a level playing field, society’s privileges and handicaps create ruts and ridges that loom large. What would it look like to design as if the most marginalized people were at the center, and those comfortable with power stepped to the side? What if instead of a boiling frog, we were a moving mass of penguins, always cycling the coldest to a warm embrace in the center?
Let’s pay forward this great gift of life, and work to make life good for all of our co-inhabitants.
Written by CDI’s executive director, Noemi Giszpenc