Environmentalist Anonymous-Day 3
Personally, when I start to unpack ecological grief I feel a lot of guilt. I think this guilt has been with me for a long time. What do I have too much of, what more can I do, am I living right and in harmony with nature as best I can? I know it is a privilege to even have the time to ponder these questions and I am far from finding any concrete answers.
As a group we talked about our own experience with ecological guilt and had a good discussion about how we struggle with this on a daily basis, in our daily choices of what to buy, eat, wear. The decision to travel also became a focal point of discussion and reminded me of a piece I wrote for the Seattle Times in 2021.
This past Wednesday happened to be Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent in many Christian traditions. During this time many people give up something as a way to test their self-discipline. Regardless of religious background, I thought this might be a helpful prompt related to understanding our own ecological guilt.
What do we wish we could give up?
Start by making a list of things you wish you didn’t need or want, either because they are unsustainable or linked in some way with environmental degradation, but have a hard time letting go of in your life. Maybe it’s the guild itself? Take a look at your list and write into what feels most resonant with you.
Some initial answers from our group were reliance on fossil fuels, bananas, diapers! What was supposed to be an initial writing warm-up ended up being our entire meeting, and the results were fruitful and deep.
I’ll share something I wrote:
“The guilt for me is feeling that everything I need is a step towards the death of everything I love.”
Let me know what is on your list!
The next meeting will be March 8th at 12 pm.
I will always email a synopsis of our gathering by the Friday/Saturday after and post on this Substack page for easier access (no subscription required to see writing group updates).
A few additional links:
Environmentally focused news recommendation: https://news.mongabay.com/
How to Love the World: A poetry anthology by James Crews:
https://www.storey.com/books/how-to-love-the-world/