I say I want to save the world and what I mean of course is I want to save Humanity. I am not doing a very good job. Besides being only one inconsequential voice, (duh), I think one (big) hump I’m having trouble getting over (being completely truthful) is that my heart is just not into saving ignorant people. Sometimes I look at Humanity and think that yes, we deserve to be a short-lived mammalian species; our extinction would do the world some good. And I suppose in that regard, perhaps together we are working to save the world. But it would be better if we could add one inconsequential voice plus one inconsequential voice plus one inconsequential voice and keep adding to a point of consequentiality. As a whole I believe that as each generation (and even as each decade) comes and goes we are less and less ignorant; but between some generations the incremental improvement is pretty small. To truly save Humanity, we need to step this up; more of us need to find our voice. I also believe, (perhaps merely due to proximity), that in recent decades we, as a whole, have become less ignorant but for whatever reason(s) we continue to allow the volume (i.e. loudness) to increase, making us appear more ignorant. As technology has advanced, what used to be pockets of mostly hidden or ignored ignorance have become reverberations rocking the world stage. And it is hard for me to see and hear this and feel all warm and fuzzy about saving Humanity. But perhaps saving Humanity should not be warm and fuzzy. But I also don’t believe it should be all clanging metal and sharp edges. Instead of having to choose one extreme or the other, there must be empathy and compassion alongside reasoned consideration, a degree of toughness, and consensus expert planning, for improvement.

This week I started the book “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” by V. E. Schwab. The opening words attributed to the fictional character Estele Magritte were as follows:

“The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.”

We are still praying to the old gods and expecting them to save us. A mix of tradition and certainty and indolence and ignorance. And for those who call on “the gods that answer after dark” throw in disdain and partisanship and intolerance and oppression and clanging metal and sharp edges. Within this volatile fusion I am afraid we will soon pay the price.

So I need to work on leaning more toward nice and softening my truthfulness? Maybe; at least in my daily interactions. I do have some sharp edges and I am pretty sure that is not the way to encourage less ignorance. It is difficult though to stay energized looking up at the peak, enlightenment, layered on Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, Justice layered on reason layered on learning layered on urgency layered on quiescence layered on ignorance. It is a large mountain to climb and it is easy to fall back on apathy; especially when one's apathy is a lush flowering green meadow and most especially in one’s own Springtime.

Every day I walk to work and the route includes one long, steep, uphill curve where for a few minutes I look to my left at the towering rock bluff, to my right at trees, and behind me and up ahead at a seemingly endless curve. It is not difficult to imagine that I will be climbing forever. This is what, (as one inconsequential voice), working to save the world feels like. At least Sisyphus periodically got a change of scenery by starting over at the bottom of the hill; and he had to put his heart into it to avoid the interminable threat of the crushing weight that was his boulder. Unfortunately today many (Most? All?) of us are able to ignore the very real weight of the very real threat that is our ignorance.