How can we hold it?

Our Buddhist book group is an empathetic, tender-hearted group of people. Our net worth in dollars is paltry (we have been socially responsible, we have pursued Right Livelihood), but if you add up all our practice in holding the truth of the moment, we have among us hundreds of years. We met this morning to continue our discussion of The Overstory, but one of the group has a friend who is a firefighter in Australia. We listened to some of what the firefighter says about what is happening there.

Look, we say, how it’s all connected. The destruction of ancient forests, the carbon emissions of cars and airplanes, the fossil fuels, factory farms, war, drought: all are part of this moment. A massive machine set in motion by a drive to dominate keeps on grinding. Every 24 hours, another two hundred species of plants, birds, insects, and mammals become extinct. Extinct. There is still much to love, and we love it as hard and as fast as we can.

We go on driving children in cars from their homes in the suburbs to dance classes in the city because we want them to know dance. We see the truth of the harm cars do. We want the children to have as much joy as they can. How can we hold all this?