All WE can do is Attempt the Impossible
Start by doing what is necessary
Then do what is possible
And suddenly you will be doing the impossible. – St. Francis
Most people I know feel that there is nothing they can do about the unfolding ecological catastrophe. Worse than that, most people I know avoid the topic and just want to get on with their lives because its too overwhelming for them to face. Others just get depressed and anxious. Others, and this group includes me sometimes, feel helpless and frustrated and go on ‘fighting the good fight’ but quite honestly feeling rather hopeless about changing anything. As I was reflecting on this, after a group meeting called “Collapse Acceptance”, I found that my wife is preparing a presentation on climate grief and one important dimension she discovered is the importance of “Hope is Action” – preferably with others. Let’s get into this idea and relate to the central thought of today’s exploration: that there is a possibility, however low, that when WE DO – emphasis on WE and DO – the seeming impossible sometimes happens. That simple fact, and I will call it a fact – not an aspiration – makes everything we do both good for our mental health and also good for the planet. This is part of the article my wife read:
Can Social Activity Be a Form of Medicine? Social prescribing utilizes the arts, nature, volunteerism, and local community organizations as “medicine” for patients of all ages. Social prescribing considers social health just as as integral to people’s well-being as their physical and mental health and an important tool to address a myriad of problems such as chronic pain, diabetes, hypertension, mental health conditions, and the loneliness epidemic. A recent study suggests that social prescribing and related services have reduced demand on primary care by 24% and emergency room visits by 28%. At a societal level, these programs can create a ripple effect, strengthening social ties and supporting programs that benefit other people. The idea of what health and health care are can evolve as a result of the community witnessing the prescribed activities. [1]
It may not seem that this relates directly to how we can increase the odd of us averting the worst excesses of the ecological disaster we are in the midst of but its vital in this way: if people don’t believe in themselves, if they have given up all hope and are isolated and sick either physically or mentally – there is no way they will be able to admit to what is unfolding in front of their face and to then act. Thus, this kind of SOCIAL health, because we know individual action, while wonderful, will never change what needs to change, is essential as it puts us in the frame of mind to see that when WE DO healing its possible, although there are no guarantees.
But what about thinking and then doing the impossible? What about not having humanity totally destroy itself? What about seeing that there is light at the end of the very long tunnel of collapse? Well, after you start doing something positive with others you next need to see that whatever it is you, however small, might actually inch us towards life, admittedly at this point – because the climate and extinction and toxic chemical pains have already begun – only after lots of grief. Here is an example of this:
A few months prior to St.Therese of Lisieux dying, one of the sisters in the cloister said of her: “Sister Therese will not live long, and really sometimes I wonder what our Mother Prioriess will find to say about her when she dies. She will be sorely puzzled, for this little sister, amiable as she is, has certainly not done anyuthing worth speaking about. [2]
The impossible happened. This unknown nobody became a Saint. There have been many others who lives were also in the shadows. Consider Rachel Carson: when she wrote her book Silent Spring do you think that even in her wildest imagination she considered it possible that her little book would launch the Environmental movement, ban DDT and be the catalyst to the creation of environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act? Well, you and I can be like St.Therese or Rachel Carson – we can try to do the impossible with others similarly inspired, not knowing if what we do matters. What we do know is this: if we don’t try, we finished – both in terms of the quality of our individual lives and but also in terms of the planet. So, as the old WWII saying goes:
Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead!
References 1. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
2. from newsletter of The Monastery of Mount Carmel, Niagara Falls, ON
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