Dirt: The indomitable human spirit
In the past half century, the state of the world has declined dramatically, measured by material terms and by the brutality of wars and ecological onslaughts. But we have also added a huge number of intangibles, of rights, ideas, concepts, words to describe and to realize what was once invisible or unimaginable, and these constitute both a breathin
... See moreRebecca Solnit • Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Ultimately, we learned (or at least some of us did) that if we look after each other, we can get through these kinds of things together. We learned the lesson that humans learn again and again about ourselves (and seem to need to learn again and again): that “the worst of times can often bring out the best in us.”56 We learned that resilience isn’t
... See moreAndrew Boyd • I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor
What startled me about the response to disaster was not the virtue, since virtue is often the result of diligence and dutifulness, but the passionate joy that shined out from accounts by people who had barely survived. These people who had lost everything, who were living in rubble or ruins, had found agency, meaning, community, immediacy in their
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