Mary Pipher wrote her book Green Boat due to her own struggles with the direction of the world, which she describes as a depressing cultural phenomenon. She talks about growing up in a time when there was no TV or internet. Time was spent with family or outdoors enjoying the beauty of nature. This is an era where life appeared simpler.
This life is in contrast to today’s world where there is a big disconnect among people and world problems. As the country became more industrialized, climate change became an issue. Pipher’s feeling is that man is destroying the planet to the extent where we can’t even ensure a safe future for our grandchildren.
She said there is no longer healthy political debate as there was in the past. Most of the news is about death and destruction with no solutions on how to move forward. When you think about it, there aren’t many positive things in the news.
People are experiencing traumas based on the issues of the world today. Anxiety and depression are increasing at rapid rates to the extent that 1 in 5 adults has some type of anxiety disorder. Many meet this overwhelming feeling with denial as a way for self preservation. It’s too overwhelming to know how to move forward.
Climate Change
When speaking about climate change, Pipher states, “It is difficult to convince humans to act when the payoffs are uncertain while the sacrifices are substantial and immediate.” This is similar to being told to quit smoking. No one knows for sure how much time it will take off your lifespan, and quitting is very difficult.
In addition to denial, another way to deal with distressing information is to minimize or normalize it. Some people may compartmentalize the information, express their powerlessness, or attack the messenger. This is easier than doing something about it.
Coping in today’s world
All of us struggle with this information in some way, shape or form. The challenge lies in how we move forward with all of these contradicting emotions and concerns. According to Pipher, in order to move forward we all need to feel our own sense of despair. This is very difficult to do. It is much easier to stick our head in the sand, but that will get us nowhere.
She mentions that in order to heal and move past the trauma of what is going on in our environment, we need to acknowledge our feelings and despair. Bottling them up is a recipe for mental illness. It is not the trauma that leads to mental illness, but how we respond to it.
Healthy people turn towards others in times of despair as a way to cope. When we turn towards others we are stronger and can deal with more. For those of you in Houston, think about Hurricane Harvey. If you weren’t flooded, you probably helped a neighbor or community who was. We all needed each other to get through the trauma.
Once we become more aware, we can be more open with others points of view and have a greater understanding. At that point we can move towards change. This isn’t necessarily about you changing the world, but how you act to make a difference. When you have a group of people advocating for the same cause as you, it gives you hope and power vs. despair.
Resilience
Pipher says that we can be aware in healthy ways. That is we can go about our day and not think about the doom and gloom. It is how we go about our day that makes a difference. For example, you can recycle when you can, bring your own bags to the grocery store, etc.
Slowing down vs. rushing all over the place is a another way to deal with all of this. Spending time in nature is healing. Gaining an appreciation for your surroundings is how to stay resilient.
She quoted a neuropsychologist, Dr. Dan Seligman, “Even if one is hopeless, the mind is healthier when it acts as if there is hope.” Another researcher, David Myers PhD found that once income reached a stable level, more money didn’t make people happy. What made them happy was time with family and friends. Happiness involves living a simpler life, decreasing the amount one consumes and savoring each other more.
There are small things we can all do to be part of the solution vs. part of the problem.
Interconnectedness
Everyone has their gifts. These are many and varied. When we put them all together we can be powerful agents of change. We are so much stronger as a group than as an individual. When we band together, whether we get the results we want or not, at least we have made our voices heard.
We are all in this world together. We can choose to destroy or repair it. People are too busy wanting to move things forward and have difficulty slowing down. When we rush around we become disconnected from other people and the world.
Realistically our problems are all interconnected with each other.
The real question is what kind of world do we want to leave for our children and grandchildren?
We need to act in ways that can assure them a safe future. People tend to feel at peace with the world when they are in nature. It tends to put things into perspective. We feel small when we stare out into the ocean or on top of a mountain. We feel connected to the universe and feel comforted that it is there.
