From climate collapse to the continuous move of the U.S. further and further to the right, we seem to be living in very dark times. With the recent recent decision of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and hints of more to come in the fall, not to mention the elections, it’s all a bit much. These are the things that dominate my daily thoughts and, like the gravity of the Earth, I don’t seem to be able to escape them. To be honest, I don’t exactly want to escape because to do so would seem wrong. This is our reality and I don’t want to escape or deny it. It’s true that at the moment I feel powerless to affect much change but the solution isn’t to ignore it or to pretend things are okay.

The result is that any happiness I feel is fleeting and strongly tinged in guilt. Visiting with family or friends is increasingly difficult because all I can think to talk about is climate collapse or one of our other current crises. And not only that, I find it difficult to listen to others share anything from “normal” life. I just don’t want to hear it because, again, it feels wrong to be talking about anything other than the crisis.

My life for many years has tended to be one of solitude as I live in a tiny house in the woods. It’s easy for me to be secluded, on my own. Perhaps that has contributed to how and what I think about. I hold myself apart because I don’t know how to participate in “normal” life and don’t want to because in my view, normal is destructive. And, something that frightens me almost as much as the destruction is the fact that so many people either don’t see it or actively seem to ignore it and carry on with a shrug of the shoulders. I think of the humans of the future looking back at our time. They will shake their heads and ask: What were they thinking? How could they let this happen?