How can Talk with our Children and Grandchildren about our Ecological Disaster?

How can Talk with our Children and Grandchildren about our Ecological Disaster?

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”                         ― Frank Herbert, Dune

It is almost impossible to read about the ecological disaster we are inflicting upon all Life on Earth without being filled with fear and worse: despair and hopelessness. The title from a recent essay certainly is NOT something I would share with any young person – what’s the point? It will only serve to have them enter a state of denial that cannot help them, or the Earth. So what can we say and do that can help our children and grandchildren as civilization collapses around us?

The Age of Extinction Is Here: Some of Us Just Don’t Know It

We’re Crossing the Threshold of Survivability — And There’s No Going Back

We can set an example. Our deeds, not our words, have power. We can remain calm, enjoy life and be optimistic, no matter what, or, as they said in WWII: “Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead!” The most important thing NOT to do is lecture and share what you consider important information… unless they ask for it. It has to do with the meaning of “help”. In my eyes “help” isn’t really “help” unless somebody asks for it. When your younger family member or friend does not want to know something from you or does not ask why you are not flying or eating meat or no longer living in the big house you once had it just means they are not ready to hear, listen and learn. Next step. As a teacher “learning” is a loaded word. By learning I do not mean intellectual facts, I mean something that will change how a person views the world and how a person changes their behaviour because of that learning. Learning is thus very emotional, because it requires change, and change is scary.

In other words, it all comes down to fear. Fear can freeze you or it can motivate you. Mostly it freezes people and has them become willfully blind to what is going around them. So, don’t scare your young friends, give them courage by showing what IS POSSIBLE. Don’t elaborate on problems, demonstrate solutions. How to do that? You must BE the solution. The way you live and act and talk and “help” must demonstrate that the current challenges we have are actually similar in kind [not degree – as our challenges are global – there is no escape this time] that what people in the past endured when the Roman Empire collapsed or the Plague swept through Europe. Yes, people died, but life went on – only it became very, very different.

Life will also be different after our current version of civilization “ends”. Ooops! I used the bad word: “ends”. Sorry. By ending I mean the end of the old so that the new can be born.  Thus, we need to see every ending as actually a new beginning. One last tip: all this cannot work if a person is isolated. It is only when being and working with others that any of us can have enough knowledge and courage to face our current doom. So, together – together being the final vital ingredient when you seek to “help” your younger friend – together we face the end of this world and then work to build a new world.

References

https://eand.co/the-age-of-extinction-is-here-some-of-us-just-dont-know-it-yet-7001f5e0c79a