Poetry does this amazing thing of making meaning without too much exposition. The poem “Being Human” is one of the poems included in All We Can Save, and it’s stayed with me since we read this for the Bookclub.
What does it mean to be human? Have we lost that which makes us human – the animal, are we too stuck in this construct, the matrix, to understand the things that really matter? Bezos goes to space to continue the process of colonization, to continue the process of consumption and disregard. They do say the choice of ride says a lot about a person …
We’ve learned so much about the world, about plants and animals, about the oceans and sky … about our history. Yet today, we’re embracing ignorance at alarming rates. We’re collectively giving money for a narcissistic White dude to ride a giant penis into space, so he can use his billions to take all the things we already know we’ve done wrong into new frontiers.
We know we’ve made a mess of the planet.
We know we’ve killed species by the thousands.
We know we’ve annihilated cultures, willfully and with eagerness and greed. We know we’ve built new communities on top of still burning ashes.
We know we’ve built communities that prop up elites by keeping the masses in place.
We know we’ve never dealt with the blood in our past.
Yet … we still think we’re human. But what does it mean to be human?
In grade school I remember learning that humans are social animals – but what does that mean when we seem not to care about our communities? We need to do more work, we need to reconnect with our neighbors and learn to take care of one another again.
Otherwise, asshats like Bezos and Elon Mush* are gonna make it so we can’t learn any lessons from our mistakes – we’ll just leave the trash behind and move all our habits into space. Blerg.
posted on June 25, 2021
Activists, scientists, most of us … we know that the truth of the climate crisis is monumental. It’s overwhelming the size, the scope, the interconnectedness of the problem.
All We Can Save asks readers to rethink, reimagine, and co-create possible futures.
It’s easy to imagine the worst … in this collection of essays and poems, the authors bring a unique clarity along with hope and optimism for solutions.
We might not save everything … let’s work together to save all we can.
My friend Jen (Jen Bravo – Price Alum & Consultant), connected us to some fantastic new friends of the podcast: Anna Cummins (The 5 Gyres Inst) and Lauren Turk (Fera Zero).
*not a typo