CLIMATE DESPAIR and The Story That Gets You Off the Couch
©2019 Judith Black
Judith will be presenting her workshop Speaking Truth to Power…or to Your Neighbor at Sharing the Fire 2020. Register today at https://www.nestorytelling.org/conference-details/
“Honey, get me a catheter. I’m here on the couch for the duration, which, as it turns out, isn’t nearly as long as we’d all hoped.”
Once you have read This Changes Everything, The Sixth Extinction, The End of Nature, all of the IPCC findings, and the collected works of E.O. Wilson, without a bathtub full of lithium, this is the state you are left in. I have often joked that “Climate Despair” will soon be an official psychiatric diagnosis. Sadly, that is no longer a joke.1 Homo sapiens is not skilled at looking at the big picture. We do what we do, address what is in front of us, and keep moving. So, even though the science behind the Climate Crisis has been available and growing for seventy years, few have paid serious attention to it. We have children to raise, bills to pay, houses to fix, partners to please, and wonderful stories to tell that share our common humanity. It is not until you and yours experience the food and water shortages created by the droughts, the floods from rising water levels, the diseases spread by growing and mutating vectors, the burning of your home and community, that you, as an individual, stand up and say “Why is this and how can we address it?” Sometimes even the disaster isn’t enough, since the pride of resilience becomes the hallmark of your experience.2 However, when pride of survival and/or denial finally ends, we are left with despair at the apocalyptic truth of our near future. How can any single human hope to take on the Homeric task of righting this gigantic ship called earth? This leads you right back to the catheter and the couch.
The only way out is forward, acknowledging the reality we sit in and holding it.
Next, find folks who have also been awakened or stricken by this gigantic species-ending malady and share. My own family is so sick of hearing me on the topic that the second anything related to climate comes up they shoot the look my way that says, ‘No, not again, and not now.’ They have my love, but can’t be my go-to people for expressing fear and angst. Find your peeps. I found mine in a workshop on Joanna Masey’s paradigm-shifting theology: “The Work That Reconnects.”3 We began building a network simply for expression and empathy. However, that was only the beginning. Being heard and offering empathy is not enough. I had to do something more than sign on-line petitions, install solar panel on the roof, and refuse straws and plastic water bottles!
There are now a multitude of organizations doing this work to move both policy and behaviors. If I listed them all here it would take 50 pages of small type. Find the group you resonate with. From the Sierra Club to Citizens’ Climate Lobby to Extinction Rebellion4, they each have specific missions and styles. I am now neck deep in lobbying our legislature for sane policy, protesting new fossil fuels infrastructure projects, and creating educational and action events for the community. There is little time left for despair.
Finding a community you resonate with is one step, but living an integrated life is essential. As storytellers we have a special gift we bring to any community we work with. Now, we’ve always known that story is more impactful than facts. (If you don’t believe that, take a look at all major religions and politics.) The humanity engendered in story wakes up the imagination and heart, creating empathy and embedding images that inform people’s ideas, decisions, and behaviors. I propose that we use our art to wake people up to the facts of the climate crisis, but, as in any good story, also offer ideas and directions they can take to advocate for a fossil-fuels-free, green, just world. We can initiate youth audiences to the concept and practice of planetary stewardship by telling stories about the natural world. We can tell stories to adults about responsible behavior and change. Both of these are good directions for us, but if you are feeling the draw of despair, a solo art form that you practice on a one-off basis will not connect you with the mission and community that keeps you off the couch.
Engage with other tellers who share your mission. Fran Stallings has been organizing eco-tellers for decades through NSN.5 Find others in your community who share this mission and work together on material, ideas, and outreach. You can even save the gas and work in a Zoom room! Find out what educational events, organizations, festivals, and trainings are going on in your community that address the climate crisis, and join them, offering your unique skills. I am discovering through my work with 350MASS6 that an artist’s eye and skills are much needed for effective communication. I work with group members on how to approach politicians and business leaders by leading with a story that will create a bridge of commonality. I organized a big fundraiser: Here Comes the Sun: A Climate Cabaret.7 Creating joy, shared experience, and hope is no small part of this work, and it is something we know how to do.
Here is the irony: In giving your skills, love, and attention to the problem, you become part of the solution. You are suddenly propelled off the couch: you remove the catheter, roll up your sleeves, and start that mammoth cultural push towards a saner world.
1.Climate Psychiatry Alliance: https://www.climatepsychiatry.org, https://www.goodgriefnetwork.org, https://www.pachamama.org (Pacha Mama works to connect our spiritual relationship to the earth and engaging in its healing)
2 Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. George Marshall, Bloomsbury Publishing Company 2014
3.https://www.joannamacy.net/main
4. https://sierraclub.org, https://citizensclimatelobby.org, https://rebellion.earth
5. https://franstallings.com/drupal7/Environmentor, https://franstallings.com/drupal7/contact
6. https://350mass.betterfutureproject.org/our_nodes
7. https://www.salemnews.com/news/lifestyles/activism-through-the-arts-here-comes-the-sun-cabaret-to/article_9bd04523-4ac3-5bc8-aeef-a58e85185e39.htm
About Judith: Judith Black has featured on stages from the Montreal Comedy Festival to The Smithsonian Institution, and 13 times at the National Storytelling Festival. She is the winner of the Oracle and Brother Blue Awards. A fanatic organic gardener, Judith is also active in 5 different climate organizations. www.storiesalive.com
