Surface Diving

What were you thinking during that last dive of summer

When your fingers, poised to slice the surface, led the way,

Breath held, back arched, eyes closed, toes pointed, 

the warmth of summer's sun upon your shoulders.

Did the water altered world sound more persuasive of peace

or did you think that underwater you would remember a time before climate change,

Before your own brokenness rushed your chest at every chance;

A smokeless burn your lungs could almost thank you for?

Aren’t you holding your breath still

and your lungs, are they

still burning like California except that you at first intentionally chose this burn?

You knew your silent scream could travel faster in water than air

and wondered could you somehow let it out without it drowning you,

But it would drown you anyways you look at it.

Besides, beneath the surface of it all

The waters soothe-- a womb like grave-- enveloping every nuance of flesh

And making secrets out of you, secrets you didn't mean to keep, I think.

As a child you shared the bathtub with your siblings,

And they would count as you ducked beneath the bubbles

And cheer as you felt the pressure for escape rising 

until in an explosion of bare chested victory  you emerged 

and they announced that you had reached the  minute mark!

What is a minute now—stretched out, wiry grey—

an ocean of tears streaked with remembrances,

salt lines on bare skin,

an arbitration between desire and duty?

And how have they stacked up;

In favour or against? Who knows?

And did you ever, for a minute, think

That dive would be your last?

That the currents would test you in a holding pattern of saline buoyancy but no escape?

The ripples of your kindness still lap upon my shore.

Gasp—but isn’t that a life lived well as any other in the end?

Jill  M. MacCormack

"If You're Offended, I'm Sorry"--Dennis King, Twitter Talk and Transforming Hatred into Love

Dear person's upset by Dennis King's misogynistic, homophobic, ignorant twitter comments, or those who might be offended by what he said online,

I am writing a letter to ask you to set aside your initial reactions of disgust, disbelief, and soul/psyche woundedness and I invite you to consider offering yourself and the man some genuine Love and Kindness.

King, as someone who has just been elected to lead one of the largest political parties on PEI, (PC) has made it clear that although what he wrote on his twitter feed a number of years ago is representative of a side of him--"Joe Citizen who's trying to make his buddy laugh"-- (comedian, and general guy's guy?) he would not publicly share such commentary while he is holding political office.

When I read the online article regarding King's offensive tweets/hashtags my initial reaction was horror and disgust. Is this guy for real? But as my day progressed and after spending some time meditating on the power of seeing the goodness in others I felt just plain sad for Mr. King and the culture we live in which both creates and reinforces such narrow mindedness and hatred as his comments suggest.

Following my meditation, I came to the realization that in ranting about King's tweets as too disrespectful to lead a political party in a province of a progressive nation in 2019, I was not creating any space in my own heart for Mr. King to redeem himself.

By remaining in anger, I was quickly dismissing King as other, and thereby effectively following the suit of his twitter posts.

There I was falling into the murky waters of the very disrespectful and demeaning mindset that I was angry at Mr. King for taking part in. By entering those waters myself I would be allowing my rising distaste for Mr. King as a person to justify the act of willingly diminishing another human by my words. Essentially, this is the cultural justification we participate in when we demean and objectify someone either individually or as representing a group or faction of society. In doing so we re-create a culture in which harm becomes normalized, even expected as part of ridicule or comedy and all too oft under the slippery guise of “it’s just a joke for my buddies and no one is getting hurt in the process.”

Demeaning comments hurt everyone who partakes of them.

But hatred in return hurts even more.

As I further reflected upon this I suddenly felt that it is urgently paramount that there be space 
 in my own heart for people who ignorantly spew hateful comments to be transformed by Love.

Transformed by my Love and yours. 

How could hating make anything better? And what do we desperately need more of in the hearts of this precious, divided world, but Love and Kindness?
 

And so, instead of finishing this day with the dismal sense of dismay I began it with as I explained to my three teens what the word misogyny means, and tried to answer their questions as to how someone choosing such a public profile role as leader of a political party could have behaved so distastefully I chose to end it by practicing an extended loving kindness meditation for Mr. King, his family and for all those who felt as hurt and confused by his twitter comments as I did.

Let us recognize that we all make mistakes. And some, like Mr. King's twitter talk, are more public and hurtful than others. Let's hope Mr. King has learned that how we speak of people, hashtag or in person, matters. Maybe, in time he will understand why saying "if you're offended, I'm sorry..." isn't enough.

May we all be filled with loving kindness, may we be happy, healthy and peaceful and at the end of this day, may all hearts, mine, yours and Dennis King’s, be at peace.

Jill MacCormack

The Time for Action is Now! The Leap Manifesto, Green New Deal and Maurice Strong's Words of Warning Twenty Years Ago

A prescient quote from a book I am reading which was written nineteen years ago by a powerful, sometimes controversial, business/ environmental leader who has since died.

"The tendency to ignore a gathering storm is especially apparent in the response to the threat to the global environment, climate change perhaps being the prime example. Evidence that we are permanently damaging our environment is dismissed as a non-issue, the latest scare tactic of "extreme environmentalists, " in spite of the considered view of a majority of scientists that early action is imperative to limit the controllable buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that permanently affect climate. People in government and business in both their work and personal lives routinely make decisions on matters of much less importance on the basis of evidence far less persuasive, but on this issue, which could affect our very survival, many argue that we should wait for scientific certainty. Business, in short, as usual--until business is no longer possible."

Maurice Strong    Where on Earth Are We Going?

Wow--how difficult it is to read these words and know that so much water has gone under the bridge in the twenty years hence. Strong understood the forces we are up against when he said business as usual until no longer possible. It makes me ask  the question once again--why do so many humans find it impossible to see beyond their own personal needs and desires to the needs and limitations of the greater whole? And yet I know that if persuaded to take action out of a place of deep caring I do believe that many people would choose to do the honourable thing and modify personal lifestyle behaviours accordingly. What then does it take to persuade the average person of the desperate urgency of climate change? And how not to become discouraged by the sheer scale and immensity of the problem?

Strong mentions in his intro that he is often asked if he is a pessimist or an optimist to which he authored this response: "Simply put, I guess I am both. I am an optimist in the sense that I believe it is feasible--indeed more so than ever before--to shape a peaceful, secure and equitable future for all humankind; pessimistic in the sense that I believe that we have not yet made the fundamental shift in priorities and behaviours that will enable us to achieve this."

I want to feel as cautiously optimistic as Strong did when he thought about the fate of the world almost twenty years ago but I am not there yet. Indeed I am fully capable of recognizing that there are countless examples of amazing people engaging in wonderful, desperately urgent work towards protection of air, waters and soils but cultural change is slow and the clock is ticking.

Nevertheless, because I love Earth  and my children with an equal ferocity and tenderness both, I forge onward. I am holding fast to my hope in Naomi Klein's Leap Manifesto and the forward thinkers there are welcoming and encouraging us to embrace a new movement out of the US called the Green New Deal. Take a moment to learn a bit more about it by watching the two minute video in the hyperlink and see how you and your family and friends can help to ensure the world is a more livable one for all species in the near future and for generations to come. 

Thanks for reading!


Interestingly, as a personal aside, while reading Strong's book and realizing the author's involvement in the UN I am mentally revisiting the occasion in university when one of my professors told me he thought I should pursue a career with the UN. I am imagining how different my life would have been...Pondering this, I am sitting here grateful for my quiet Island and busy family life, the swirl of which is enough for me any day.

In warmth,
Jill