Friday! And the world burns
We are not the holidays we go on, or the breaks we take
Friends, this heat. Holy hell.
An article from the BBC referenced record temperatures, supported by a photo of ‘Brits at the swimming pool’.
In a recent session about how we communicate climate stories better here in Cornwall, one of the hosts – a long time climate campaigner – said “It’s the hottest May on record, and likely to be the coolest May we’ll experience from now on.”
We’re not sleeping well, how could we?
And the question isn’t about single-use plastic or taking the bus to work, it’s deeper than that. Somewhere in the reservoir Robert Bly used to talk about.
"Every breath taken in by the man
Who loves, and the woman who loves,
Goes to fill the water tank
Where the spirit horses drink."
It’s to do with the point of it all.
When we’ve got lunch provided, water, shelter, people around us, what do we aspire to be?
If it’s another holiday, we’re deadwood.
If the highest aspiration is a certification or an award or a write-up in the paper, none of us are going to last.
It’s about the meaning. Why we bother, what keeps us awake, what we teach our kids…
It’s not easy stuff, this.
The words are sweating as I write them.
But there are some good clues about.
“Wisdom isn’t learning something new, it’s being reminded of what you’ve always known.”
We can start with that. With looking in and down instead of out and up. Pause on the up-skilling. Leave the scroll. Close the tab.
And what if climate collapse, itself a symptom of metacrisis (the single, interconnected crisis behind all other major natural crises (failing food systems, polluted waterways, war, wealth flowing to an increasingly smaller group, mass migration and on and on)), is itself a symptom of a MEANING crisis?
What if the malaise we feel when the mercury slips over 30C is connected to all of this?
When it comes to it, we don’t know what we even believe in.
And what if the game is more closely related to grief than we’d usually like?
I do not suggest that we collapse into ourselves, but that we begin from a place of shared grief. Gather in, together, with our loved ones, and share the grief we’re feeling.
Let it hurt that things feel uncertain.
And here’s the big one:
Admit that we’ve been making it up all along.
Recognise that we’re all playing the game of ‘competency camouflage’. Whatever our particular flavour, whether it’s people-pleasing or avoidance or something other, some recognition that we’re pretending our way along.
Where do you belong?
What do you want from life?
Where is your water?
If you’re feeling the pang from those kinds of questions, we’re right in the same spot.
And here are a couple of clues I keep close for the way onwards.
First, a repetition: “Wisdom isn’t learning something new, it’s being reminded of what you’ve always known.”
Second, happiness is a feeling of contribution. When I seek more stuff and to better myself and let scrolling and binging and malaise sneak into the day to day, I find the question of service to be a helpful one. And I think it’s the biggest clue when it comes down to the deeper meaning. Instead of “What do I have to become?” at the heart of our teachings and parenting and leadership, what if it was “What do I get to be of service to?”. Instead of stuff and celebration, what if we all hankered and urged ourselves on towards service and contribution?
Finally, and here comes the Recalling Fire context, see what Bly’s reservoir is saying: Poetry, mythology, making, beauty. If we’re open, what are we doing to love our way towards a central tank of deeper meaning?
If you’re feeling the heat, and the feeling isn’t just a higher temperature in your body but in the stakes of it all, in the future, in your heart and your dreams, I’m writing to say: please know you’re not alone.
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Thanks for reading. It’s good to have allies like you.
For next steps…
The old stories are waiting for you to remember that they’re waiting. If you want a story, go back to Drop The Map (episode 3 coming soon).
And if you want to go another step in, to “feel down” into these images, and the idea of competency camouflage, catch up with the essay Getting Better at Being Lost, or Mythocartography: sideways looking for the metacrisis.
If you’re in Cornwall, the next moment of live gathering is Saturday 6th June, 7.30pm at Into Bodmin.
And if you’re a leader (organisational, community or leading a campaign), be in touch. The workshops around this work are deepening. We begin with ‘how we respond to pressure’ and very quickly find our way into the adventure of what could be.
Programmes available, I prefer to co-create, but wherever we go it begins with a workshop. 2 hours, some provocations, online or in-person. A space of “safe enough to dare.”