Dulce et Decorum Est

The poem by Wilfred Owen, not the ode by Horace. 

On this Memorial Day we hope that the madman in charge of this country is not about to unleash more war. If he does, it will not be his doing alone. He’s a figurehead for global madness: the idea that wealthy people and corporations should be free to own as much property as they want and to exploit the earth and the poor people of the earth for their personal profit, even as they destroy the planet and render it unsuitable for life.

I’m reading a remarkable book, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis, by David Loy (2018). It describes the collective spiritual crisis resulting from a culture of consumption and individuality, and it recommends dissolving the delusion of our separateness and recognizing how interconnected we are with all life on this planet. Loy doesn’t say that the planet can be saved, but he sees plastic in the oceans and smoke in the air as symptoms of a profound illness that can be treated. He writes, “the ecological crisis demonstrates our own well-being can’t really be distinguished from the well-being of the whole.” 

My Buddhist book-group is reading and discussing Loy's book, and one member said when we met this morning, "When I think of the urgency of removing plastic from the ocean, I feel hopeless. But when I think of shifting our collective mind-set from self-absorption to interconnection, I feel a tremor of possibility." 

At the end of each chapter Loy quotes people who have inspired his thinking, and two that inspire me are these:

“The first step to reimagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination—an imagination that is outside of capitalism as well as communism. An imagination which has an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment.” —Arundhati Roy.

“When I am asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.” —Martin Keogh.

This afternoon the skies cleared and the sun came out, and I felt a need to leave the book and go walk on grass and among trees, but I realized that all the parks are crowded with people celebrating Memorial Day weekend with beer and barbecue. So I went to a cemetery. Hardly anyone was there, and I had a beautiful meditative photo-walk. Two Extras (landscapes, very unusual for me).