Don't Soften the Edges
by Caitlyn Vernon
Late last night, an image bubbled up and turned into words on a page. I’ve been thinking about false hopes. Thinking about how often I hear renewable energy put forward as the solution to climate change, as if that’s all we need to do, as if we don’t have to make any other changes. Thinking about how my grandfather always said, if there weren’t food banks there would be food riots - an uprising for food justice - and how that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Food banks keep us complacent, keep us from asking why. Does the promise of new technologies do the same thing?
I.
The big picture tilts, it’s too heavy,
too hard to hold in our hands, in our hearts.
It slips off the wall,
shatters into pieces on the floor.
II.
In the big picture, it’s not just climate change.
It’s how we treat one another, how we make decisions,
It’s our arrogance, our superiority, our sense of entitlement,
Our disconnect from each other and from the earth.
In the big picture, it’s not just climate change.
Droughts caused by water mismanagement and overuse,
Food shortages the legacy of industrial agriculture,
People die so shareholders can make a profit,
Fish are disappearing because we ate them.
In the big picture, climate change makes things worse,
But reducing greenhouse gas emissions won’t make these problems go away.
In the big picture, is capitalism.
It is profits over people, some people over other people,
And all people over the environment.
It is the individual at the expense of the collective,
It is all of us.
In the big picture, we can dare to dream of a future both equitable and sustainable.
Where there is justice and a fair distribution of limited resources,
Where we make decisions based on community, not profit,
Where our economy respects ecological limits.
III.
But the big picture tilts, it’s too heavy,
too hard to hold in our hands, in our hearts.
It slips off the wall,
shatters into pieces on the floor.
IV.
The pieces are like shards of stained glass,
catching the light and holding our attention.
Renewable energy is one piece, the promise of new technologies.
Food in/security is another piece, glinting in the light.
Water shortages, species extinctions,
Violence against women, languages being lost,
Governance structures, investment policies,
Homelessness, you name it the piece is there, glittering.
The allure, the necessity to act, is palpable.
We each grab a piece and run around with it,
urgently trying to fix it, somehow.
My piece is the most important – no, mine is! – we argue,
waste time, forget about the big picture, distracted.
The shards have sharp edges, they hurt our hands.
We try to bandage them up, soften the edges,
find solutions, inspire hope for the future of each piece.
Focusing on each shard alone,
gives people hope, gives people
something that isn’t so hard to hold on to.
But, all too often, damages some of the other pieces of the picture.
Softening the edges, of each shard in isolation,
can be misleading,
can detract and distract from the task at hand.
V.
But wait, what is the task at hand?
We all run around urgently, we are not done yet,
But where are we trying to get to?
The big picture, is the task at hand.
To piece the shards together into a new image
That reflects the light and our collective dreams.
Don’t soften the edges.
We need to see them and feel them,
To fit the pieces together,
To re/design a future based in real solutions.
A vision for the future
That exposes root causes and heals oppressions,
That is grounded in love and compassion and justice,
With an understanding that we are ecological beings,
And a desire to treat the world and each other with respect and humility.
Re/Designing the big picture
Requires us to face our fears with open hearts,
Be open to putting the pieces together in unexpected ways,
And be willing to cut our hands in the process.
With the strength of community, we can hold up our re/designed big picture,
To inspire a movement.
