In the SF Bay area, we’ve recently had unseasonably warm days, totally out of character for us at this time of year in San Francisco and the other nearby coastal regions. Most of us have been delighted to sit out in our yards at night and enjoy this new balmy climate. But then I read in the paper recently that the planet has been recording one of the hottest springs, reminding me that while I’m luxuriating in these above-average temperatures, the weather extremes are killing the planet. It’s a startling and disturbing statistic.
It also illustrates how what is positive for one person may be a negative for another. Food is an example. I love food and eating is one of my great pleasures. Fortunately, my metabolism (and exercise regime) keeps my weight under control. Yet others who don’t share my genetic makeup, and who also love food, struggle to fight their temptations. As my niece Jada said when she was two years old and I was beating her at a game, “It’s not fair!”
When I realized the downside of what was giving me pleasure, it also reminded me of the bubble many of us live in. We have so many pleasurable distractions, especially in America. If we follow sports, we cheer on our favorite teams; our food supplies are abundant; TV, the Internet, AI, and so much more, flood our days with images and information; cultural events abound in small and large cities. It’s easy, then, to distance ourselves from the many tragedies plaguing the earth, including unnecessary wars and political chaos.
I’m reminded of pictures I saw as a child of ostriches with their heads in the sand. Those images absolutely fascinated me. I returned to them again and again. The story was that they hid from danger in this way, but that explanation is apocryphal and ostriches really don’t engage in this behavior. They are smarter than that, and so are we. But on some days, I do wish I were one of those ostriches my young self loved and could hide from all of the tragedies that bombard us. And on some days I do.
2 thoughts on “It’s not fair!”
I see it as there being no point in regretting what I can’t change an iota of. Climate change is happening whether I want it or not, and apparently most people don’t care or they wouldn’t have elected the present administration, which seems hell-bent on more destruction and less accountability by the minute.
I still do all the things we hippies did: conserve water, don’t pour toxic anything into streams and rivers, mind your plastics…
But the damage done by ONE EXXON Valdez wipes out all the gains from millions of careful users of the Earth, while the greedy and corrupt somehow manage to live in the pretty places.
I mourn for things like the lives of goldminers and coal miners, with the idea that there is enough for everyone if we want there to be, but too many people don’t.
So well put, Alicia!