Hopes and Fears

It’s World Children’s Day as I write this, and my mind has been on children these last few days. I have grandchildren and all the hopes and fears for their future that goes with that special relationship. This week’s thoughts have been both at the micro level, in terms of their interests, skills, ideas for the future and so on and macro in terms of the kind of world they will get to live in.

My concerns at the macro level normally centre around the climate emergency and the failure of governments to tackle it effectively. This is about leaving a world fit for them to live in happily, comfortably, and in peace. This week’s preoccupation on the other hand has been more immediate, provoked by conflict escalation and Putin’s nuclear threats. Many see these as sabre rattling, and I hope they’re right, but it’s certainly a scary threat. The reality of thousands dying many miles away is enough to provoke compassion and a desire to support or help in some way but the prospect of death raining down on all I know and love, with all around obliterated by nuclear weapons brings a more visceral reaction, truly the stuff of nightmares.

Expressing these feelings has elicited some helpful responses. First, it has been pointed out that I’m assuming the worst, and it may not happen. Second, that I have no control over it anyway and worrying will have no effect – better to make the most of life and be concerned with things over which I do have some control. This brings me back to the climate.

In the case of global warming, it is actually happening and there are things I can do about it.  Clearly the scale of it is outside my control but I can make a difference even if it is in a small way. World leaders have largely failed us in this area but can be influenced and we at least, and at last, now have a government which shows some sign of understanding the need and appears to be taking it seriously and we have the power of the ballot box. More immediately we can make a difference in our own approach to life, in lifestyle, in the choices we make.

Some argue that this is pointless without changes in the attitudes of the big powers, but my feeling is that nothing that makes a difference is pointless – and there are many ways to make a difference. Many changes have grown from the ground up and we are seeing some of that now – slower to take effect than we need but better slow than not at all.

So my way out of this week’s gloom is a recommitment to do the small things I can do – restricting the use of fossil fuels, recycling, encouraging bio diversity in practise and in discussion, avoiding flying, and so on – and also raising awareness, not least through my writing. It may not be much, but it’s something. From an accumulation of small actions can spring large consequences. And it gives me some glimmers of hope, a gift to share with and for the children on World Children’s Day – in the spirit of which I share below a poem I wrote some time ago and which was published in my collection Paths and Digressions, appropriately entitled Hope…

Hope

Ice 
     melts 
               and 
                       oceans rise.

Storms rage,
forests blaze, 
heads of government 
turn blind eyes.
Action is lacking,

so why hope?

Because 
of the promise of technology,
the energy of youth,
the increase in awareness,
the facing up to truth 
(in some quarters only
and it’s little and late)
but the trickle of action
is becoming a stream
and streams become rivers
and the river’s in spate.

Because we are human
and foolish
we hope.
Because hope is life
And we’re frightened of death
we cling to the lifeline
with every last breath.
Because to give up 
would be a betrayal
and we cannot betray.
Because of the youth
who must have their day.

We hope.