The unexpected and how we respond

I woke this morning to the sound of a crow playing our piano…….more of that later but the unexpected is becoming the norm.   Australia on fire, three major storms in February, floods, and now Covid-19 causing alarm and widespread disruption. On a personal level it is certainly alarming and will affect us all. However, some say the coronavirus is a mild forerunner of the big and urgent event – climate change.  Both certainly test our responses – do we work together against a common threat or do we fearfully withdraw to our personal and separated spaces?   The difference in response to the virus and to climate change is so noticeable. The former elicits a dramatic response at all levels perhaps because our brains are hard wired for events seen as immediately personally threatening.  We turn our fear into action. Climate change on the other hand is a slow burn, relentless in its increasing effects, and so overwhelming in its range and power that we seem impotent in its path. And so for this we cope with denial, impotent rage, paralysis, blame or one of the many unhelpful defence mechanisms. So too little is done too late. It is only by leaning into the pain of the lost world of bottomless abundance – for lost it is - that we will find the energy to respond constructively and urgently.   Meanwhile some good news – the Court of Appeal ruling against the third runway at Heathrow sets an important precedent that major projects will have to be measured against our climate commitments.  HS2 next?  A decision to crow about?……ah yes…..our piano player must have come down the chimney and flapped its way to the keyboard……….the extraordinary does happen.  Let us come together and do the extraordinary for each other in these extreme times.  Take care. 

Written by Derek Chase 24/03/2020 and published in April edition of the Bremhill newsletter