Ok - a few apocalypse thoughts.
I was born into a family with a father who was certain we were in the end times before I was even born. He's been prepping us for this since we were babies. Every potential catastrophe or new illness was possibly "it."
Except, of course, the climate crisis, because he's a conservative Tr*mp supporter and the very real scientific threat of climate change did not align with his politics.
But I digress. Needless to say, the apocalypse has been in the background of my life since before I was me. I've talked to multiple therapists about the fact that this predisposition very well may have attracted me to the climate fight itself. Maybe it just made me ready for it.
Doesn't matter. Because here we are. Here are a few things I've gleaned along the way:
Things will not continue to be "normal." Normal is an illusion. What little "normalcy" we've attained over the past few hundred years was an illusion born on the backs of a relatively stable climate and disenfranchised people - namely people of color and women.
We should reject normalcy as a baseline - and ask ourselves - who do we want to be right now? As individuals? And more importantly, as a society?
In the midst of the chaos we're all experiencing and the destruction of our societal norms before our very eyes, what can we build? How can we imagine something better? How can we help?
Apocalypse means: to reveal. It will reveal our worst impulses - and it may help us find our best.
Even if this shitstorm of a global pandemic wasn't happening in the midst of a serious political crisis we'd still have the chaos - the revealing - of the climate crisis, opioid crisis - skyrocketing partisan division, racism, anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Normal isn't necessarily good.
And I'm 100% not saying that a global pandemic is good - it's decidedly not good. Thousands if not millions of people will die. Probably some of our loved ones.
And in the midst of the trouble and the rubble, we'll still have to ask ourselves: who do we want to be?
How do we want to exist? How do we help?
Maybe in the utter chaos and destruction, we can build something new. We can become better.
Something worth fighting for. Something worth living for.
I guess we'll see.
In the meantime, stay safe loves. It's a wild world out there. But let's try and make it the best world we can.
