On the Wages of Silence
At least for me.
With bombing having resumed in Gaza, I’ve found myself drawn into writing against it again, which may be frustrating to some readers and offensive to others. I’m sure I’ve lost some subscribers in doing so.
I’d certainly rather be writing about the living Earth, its climate and the science that pertains to it. That’s my passion and where I see our greatest opportunity for preventing biotic and climatic collapse. A clear-eyed view would counsel a head-down, stay-focused approach. Surely I will “have more impact,” whatever that means at this moment, by not diverting my attention to something over which I have no control or agency. But something in me puts its heels in the ground and says “no. ”
It’s like an inner warning, but not a warning over practical concerns, like my subscribership or my own credibility, but something more vital. Every writer has a muse and mine demands I not look away. What I see it sees too, and if that seeing brings forth some words, I’m obliged to follow them. There is no careful detour or strategic partitioning.
I do want to be clear, however, that none of these words translate to approval of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Neither are they aimed at Israeli people or Jewish culture. There is the constant potential of outrage shifting to hatred, and I aim to be vigilant against that phase-change.
If there’s a link here to the climate according to life, it’s in nature’s ability to help in that regard, to cool and settle those impulses, to prevent the heart from hardening, keeping it soft and spacious enough to see the cruelty and violence but not be captured by it. But that same softening and openness makes it impossible to turn away.
An argument can be made that advocating for the integrity of living systems also advocates for peace and justice, with ecological integrity providing the ground upon which the work of building peace and justice can be undertaken. Or put another way, the more we disconnect from the living world, the less grounded we become, and the more susceptible we are to our human extremes and ideologies.
And at some point this current spasm of violence will wear itself out, and recovery will begin again. Earth, and it’s capacity for regeneration, it’s passion for renewal, will be there as always to help at the deepest, and most practical, levels. But that is all rather far off and conceptual. Children are being crushed under buildings now. Children with severe burns are being rushed to hospitals that have run out basic of supplies now. It is happening as I write, and because I write, silence is not an option.
As always, Rob, thank you for your conscientiousness, your talent, and the labor that it takes to express your beautiful heart. I’m not sure, however, that “the more we disconnect from the living world, the less grounded we become, and the more susceptible we are to our human extremes and ideologies.” is accurate. It seems that it ought to be true, but humans in tribes were connected to the earth for a million years. Us and them is part of a world view that holds tribal cultural together. In the catastrophe of Gaza, it’s still this tribalism that determines much of the horror. How to be grounded without the ideology of “us and them” ? I think it’s far easier to practice loving kindness as an individual than it is as a society. Is it that we are all droplets in the ocean, and when enough droplets hold the value that the other is myself the ocean will change? I don’t know. Thank you for your practice.
oops sent too soon...I was going to say that I will not be silenced by accusations of anti semitism, accusations that only encourage militarized zionism’s genocidal campaign in Gaza (and just wait, the West Bank is next). Ive seen with my own eyes the way Palestinians are treated. I know enough about colonization as we in Canada are expected to apologize to indigenous people at every public event and yet to decry the ethnic cleansing going on now against an indigenous people is ONLY anti semitic. theres a lot more to this and I think it has a lot to do with out of control immigration of Muslim populations in Europe.