Sunny day sweeping' the clouds away
Can you tell me how we get people to care beyond what's right on their street?
I snapped a photo of our dining room as the sun was streaming through the window earlier this week. It was far from sunny this morning after yesterday’s storms and drop in temperatures. But I am channeling the warmth and gratitude I felt in that moment as I enjoyed what the morning had to offer to my soul.
I don’t take beautiful days for granted. Between tornado warnings, single digit temps, snow, thunderstorms, tornado warnings again, and then more rain and cold, these days that make me feel safe and able to live my life thought being in full emergency preparedness mode are few and far between. My family has been lucky to never experience the true hardship weather events can bring. While my husband and I were privileged enough to be able to choose a home that geographically and historically doesn’t experience flooding or tornados (because we’re on a hill next to a small mountain), we know we aren’t exempt from them.
Six people died in my state yesterday because of the two dozen tornados that formed in Southeast. Nineteen and counting are dead in California because of the atmospheric river bringing flooding and landslides to the state.
I don’t know how people can continue to deny the existence of climate change or the fact that we are going to keep losing lives if we are not prepared for it. Maybe because it is feels like this amorphous, capricious thing that is not definitive enough to address. Maybe because the people being affected by it are often marginalized individuals that we don’t see as being equal to us. Maybe because we think we can out engineer the inevitable. Maybe we were putting it in God’s hands.
I don’t want us to wait until it is on our doorstep to do something. Because by then it is too late. We have already waited long enough.
I am not proposing solutions in this post. Solutions have been proposed by people who are far more intelligent and with far more influence than me. I am just asking for you to listen and pay attention. Also, maybe vote with your dollars (and with your actual vote.) We don’t need you to take drastic measures, although I will totally root you on if you do. We need a lot of people making small changes, being committed to listening to what experts have to say, and to understand that the little bit you may have to give up has the potential to help so many others live healthy and safe lives.