PenPenWrites

“The world is too much with us.” Wordworth was referring to the materialism of his time (“getting and spending we lay waste his powers.”). Yet I can’t help but think of that poetic fragment as a reference to the news and politics of our time.

When the world comes crashing in–news of war, misinformation about events, uncivil commentary, attacks on science and higher education, cancellation of clean water and air rules (I don’t know where to stop the list)–we may feel grief and loss. So may our adult children, especially when it comes to environmental degradation. Many of us (I am a guilty party) cope by no longer listening to the news and making sure podcasts or substacks are about culture, sports and feel-good topics. We may keep our conversations with our adult children on the same plane.

But our children and their children are going to have to live with this re-made world. There’s no escaping what’s happening. So, where to find comfort and calm and still be of this time and place?

There are words of solace in Jennifer Breheny Wallace’s Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose:

• “No matter what kind of upheaval we’re facing, be it job loss, retirement, empty nesting, a shifting world, or some other destabilizing event, the surest way to sustain our own sense of mattering is to focus on making others feel like they matter.”

A recent book on grief — many of us are grieving the loss of our traditional moral and ethical codes— also addresses this issue. The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller is organized around five grief gates, with Gate Three being the Sorrows of the World. Weller argues that ignoring this grief leads to a deadened life, while facing it allows us to feel intimate with life, fostering “soul activism” and deeper love for the world.

Some of Weller’s words of support:

• The Shared Burden of the Environment: “Whether or not we consciously recognize it, the daily diminishment of species, habitats, and cultures is noted in our psyches. Much of the grief we carry is not personal, but shared, communal”.
• Living with Loss: “It is at the third gate that we acknowledge losses on a planetary scale. … Staying close to sorrow can keep the heart open”.
• Confronting the Crisis: “Every sorrow we carry extends from the absence of what we require to stay engaged in this ‘one wild and precious life’”.
• Resistance to Numbing: “We are designed to encounter this life with amazement and wonder, not resignation and endurance”. 

painting: Edgar Degas, L’Absinthe