Many of my blog entries concern how we, as individuals experiencing the Predicament that humanity is living through, are responding. I look for creative contributions from people whom I respect.
Dougald Hine is a British writer and blogger. The following is excerpted from his essay I would plant my apple tree , October 18, 2023, on his blog Writing Home.
“For most of us, the truth may be that there is little we can do, but we can still choose how to be. We can stay with the horror, let the tide of our helplessness wash over us for a time, refuse to harden ourselves against this awareness…..”
“The work that is yours to do – the place where your skills or callings meet the needs of the world – may have no connection to the larger horrors that command our attention in days like these.
And still, as we sit with the horror and the helplessness, perhaps we notice something else. A longing for what is absent from the acts of terror and retribution. A quiet determination to contribute to the possibility that humans can be more than this, that we can and often do show up with grace and kindness and care.
This is the place, I want to say, where work which has no obvious or direct connection to the suffering, cruelty and injustice in our news feeds may nonetheless be part of what is called for in response.”
Coyote Vision 
Charles,
So well put.
I remember my second cousin in Portugal. In his mid-nineties, he proudly showed us a fruit tree sapling he’d just grafted. We are horrified by those who treat olive trees and children alike with contempt and brutality. Unable to see anything beyond the limits of hatred and fear. Anything beyond their own most twisted wishes for a kind of security that can only exist in their twisted minds and broken hearts. We witness this, but our responses cannot be ruled by their limitations. Imaginations need to be expanded towards Life if anything is to be sacred, to be saved.
Tony
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