It’s the end of the world as we know it

Lately, I’ve been walking around with the feeling that the world is coming to an end.

What would be a reasonable sentence after that opening? Maybe: “If this sounds overly dramatic, it is because it is.” Or maybe “I obviously don’t mean this literally.”

But the thing is: I don’t believe it is overly dramatic, and when it comes right down to it, I kinda mean it just like it sounds. Big shifts are happening; shifts so massive that the world, as we know it, is coming to an end.

This is not necessarily a bad (or a good) thing: it’s just a thing. There can be no wholesale transformation without destroying some of what came before. We often say, no peace without justice. But justice also means destruction of the unjust. No gender equality without a breakdown of the patriarchy. No racial justice without a dismantling of white supremacy. No environmental balance without learning how to live without cars and Amazon Prime.

Or, as someone wise once said, you have to destroy to create.

But even with these types of seismic shifts, what is left is a palimpsest of the layers of humanity that preceded. We get to decide what to destroy and what to create. We get to set boundaries and structures that are fairer, more sustainable, more attractive, more real. We get to reach out to each other with love and compassion. We get to know, by doing, that we can do much much better.

So as I sit in the shifting winds, that is what I hold onto. The absolute certainty that we have the power to create the world we want.