Live as if

Chalmers United Church, downtown Guelph, Friday

Today, we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder....

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now....

It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the [human immunodeficiency] virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive.

~Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai

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Two weeks ago, strolling around Toronto's West End with Danny, I was moved to see roses still blooming in people's front yards. It's a rare delight at this time of year. We can't expect much colour again until late March or early April when the first snowdrops and winter aconites press through the fallen leaves.

In one garden a perfect scarlet rose had opened that day, not yet blemished by frost or wind. Next to it, someone had hung red glass balls from the boughs of a spruce sapling.

We live in a strange era of human history, holding in one hand so much opportunity for progress and discovery, in the other the potential to destroy ourselves with a single act of savagery, or through ignorance and neglect of the environment. It could be a beginning or an end.

Lately I have been contemplating mortality. It is important to transcend the fear of death in order to live freely in the moment, making the most of one's life. I admit to fearing this extinction of the mind, the crossover from experience into oblivion. Possibly we will migrate to a different realm of consciousness, but personally I do not believe in an afterlife. This motivates me more to make the best of now.

But I have not only been thinking of myself. Recent discussions spurred me to consider the death of society and culture. The argument goes like this: if we accept the fact of our species' extinction (and indeed, all species eventually become extinct), we can concentrate on the richest possible social experience today.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai would certainly contradict that idea. She spoke of shedding fear and giving hope to one another so we can rise to a knew level of consciousness. Her words challenge cynical thinking, the idea that we can do nothing to prevent environmental disaster.

Our attitude about the future may well be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Pessimism leads to negative outcomes, which breed further pessimism. Positive thinking might not always win out, but if we expect to fail, we certainly will.

The only way to save our environment from irreparable damage is to radically change our patterns of consumption. If we live as if it's okay to keep exploiting natural resources irresponsibly and abusing the air, earth and water because we're going to burn ourselves out anyway, we will facilitate our own immolation. If we live with hope, our mindset will demand change. We must think, "As if." Live as if our species can survive and our planet has a sustainable future, then we may indeed secure better conditions for the future.

It breaks my heart to think that roses in Toronto's West End might one day perish, giving way to a wasteland wrought by human ignorance. Whether it's foolish of me or not, I would rather let my life be guided by the hope that they will return next spring. We have these choices about how to live: fear, hope and apathy.