@Kinnison

Nooooooooooooooooo.

@cmskiera

AGREED. Do we have to do 2020 for the rest of the decade, do you think - or can we call it quits halfway?

This decade has been something else, @MLClark. I wish I could see some light at the end of the tunnel...

@cmskiera

I wish I could, too.

I feel like many of our world orders are transforming, but not evenly or consistently, or without *significant* pushback from older structures.

It's probably going to be a financial metric that breaks first (e.g., from how big oil is rushing to pump out as much profit in its final years as it can), but maybe the escalating climate crises exacerbating refugeeism while nationalism is also surging will hit first.

Either way, we need to brace, & build better ASAP.

@cmskiera

Also, thank you, CM.

I feel like I'm pacing in place. I want to do so much, but there's so little right now that I *can* do.

Educate myself.

Hold more ideas in tension, to see the whole human picture as best I can.

Try to share in the process.

Invite others to view themselves and their journeys with more kindness.

And...

Just keep working on readiness.

Make it so that, when the opportunity comes, I'm *ready*, full stop.

Hope you're doing what you need to do for you, too. 💛

The sad and frustrating thing to me is that all our problems seem solvable, yet humanity can't get its act together,
@MLClark

@cmskiera

They're 100% solvable!

COP28 is a perfect example: all the planning's been done. We know what we need to do to prevent, mitigate, and restore.

But a few countries need to fulfill their funding pledges, & they just *won't*--in part, because of a few companies with far too much control over so-called democracies.

But if we could reduce climate pressures? We'd also reduce scarcity-induced ethnic wars.

We *could* fix so much--if we could take back power from the few who won't let us.

I fear greed will be the end of us all, @MLClark 😦

@cmskiera 💙 Thanks for sharing this slice of the lifeboat with me, while we still can.

You're welcome, @MLClark. I wish I wasn't so pessimistic.

@cmskiera

Me neither, but there's some comfort in a bleakness shared!

@killingfloorman

From 2016 on especially - but yes!

@MLClark I refer to that year as a turning point in my life. I’m not the same person I was before then. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Just different.

@killingfloorman

@Novels56 @MLClark @killingfloorman For me it was 2020-2022, when I was deployed as a contact tracer during the pandemic. I'm not the same man.

@Novels56 @killingfloorman

Me too, Novels.

A couple weeks after the awful election, which hit Canadians hard too, I left my PhD program, dissertation twice-written but my committee unclear what it wanted from me, & me all out of money. The department's adjunct grad officer was intimidated by my tenured advisor, so she pushed for me to file for mental health leave instead of a proper withdrawal, making it "my fault" instead of a faculty problem to mediate. I started saving up to emigrate next.

@Novels56 @killingfloorman

Took a year of eating little more than rice and eggs and lentils (and discount apples when I could), plus some kind donations from friends, but I had enough to make the leap in early 2018.

And all that time (around the election) I saw the emboldened nastiness of so many people all around me. So many people I'd thought were kinder and wiser. So many attempts to help from within the system that failed.

I hope you've done what you needed to do for yourself since, too.

@MLClark my experience in no way compares to yours…but we share the disappointment in people around us that we thought were as you said, “kinder and wiser.” One of the biggest change/regret I have is that I don’t read like I did before. I didn’t stop buying books though. I have a huge stack that I look at every day and think I need to get busy reading. But my mind tells me that I must keep up with “world events.” I hope that I can find a balance but after 7 years. 🤷🏼‍♀️

@killingfloorman

@Novels56

Oof. Yes! I used to devour lit, but it's hard these days to see it as a priority over immediate worldly presence. Ours was a culture that prided itself on education, the arts...

But where was all the self-awareness these were supposed to foster in us?

Every generation has its moment when it's smacked over the head by the knowledge that many will always prefer division instead, and care more about seeing others lose than working for the collective win.

2016 was that year for us. 🫂

@MLClark 🫂