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{"id":866,"date":"2015-03-13T13:06:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/myjourneyofconscience\/?p=866"},"modified":"2015-03-13T13:06:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:06:30","slug":"confessions-of-complacency-in-the-midst-of-global-warmth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/myjourneyofconscience\/2015\/03\/13\/confessions-of-complacency-in-the-midst-of-global-warmth\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of Complacency in the Midst of Global Warmth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Girl$ <\/a>Yesterday I was walking my dogs in the sunshine. When I turned my mind to climate change I felt\u2026 well\u2026 remarkably untroubled. The temperature was perfect, about 65 degrees. There \u00a0was a slight breeze that made the daffodils and camellias wave gently back and forth. All was\u00a0right with the world, at least here. Runaway global warming, massive storms, droughts, widespread extinctions, political unrest, and the other ills that climate change is likely to bring? Well, there\u2019s always something. We\u2019ll deal with it somehow.<\/p>\n

Aren\u2019t we funny creatures? At the exact same time that I am convinced\u00a0we must make massive changes in the world\u00a0\u2013\u00a0now<\/em> \u2013 to prevent widespread suffering, destruction, and death, I experience moments of, \u201cEh, whatever. Have you noticed the jasmine is blooming?\u201d<\/p>\n

Never mind the fact that it\u2019s MARCH in Portland, Oregon, and it\u2019s supposed to be 45 degrees and raining more or less constantly. Never mind the fact that\u00a0when I moved to Portland 23 years ago you didn\u2019t see the sun between October and June, except for what I liked to call the occasional \u201csucker hole.\u201d It\u2019s just kind of hard to be upset about the weather when it\u2019s so\u00a0pleasant.<\/em>\u00a0(Apologies to the people elsewhere on the continent\u00a0suffering severe water shortages or ridiculous amounts\u00a0of snow.)<\/p>\n

Maybe we can\u2019t really trust our sense of urgency to let us know whether something is actually urgent. I\u2019ve certainly been overwhelmed with a sense of imperative about things that later proved to be pretty unimportant except for the projections of my own delusions. And then there are problems\u00a0in the world\u00a0that our friends or neighbors believe should merit\u00a0our full attention and response \u2013 but we just listen politely to our friend\u2019s\u00a0concerns while hoping they will change the subject soon, and then get back to planning\u00a0a barbecue.<\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve personally been very consumed by the process of selling our condo, buying a house closer to the zen center I lead, and finding ways to make part of my living as a writer. There are all kinds of exciting and stressful projects to contemplate: Refinishing floors, packing, locking loan rates, emails, blog posts, rss feeds, guest teachers at the zen center\u2026 not to mention walking dogs and getting rid of an ant infestation.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah \u2013 and all of this activity is carried out with the background assumption that everything will stay more or less the same for at least the next 30 years that we\u2019ll be paying our new mortgage. Many experts on climate change are suggesting this is an increasingly risky assumption to make\u2026<\/p>\n

Zen Master Dogen warned us that even if you attain great spiritual development, if you miss the fundamental matter, \u201cYou are playing in the entranceway, but you are still short of the vital path of emancipation.\u201d And yet he also wrote, \u201cGoing forward is, after all, an everyday affair.\u201d When I read that line I always think about things like sweeping floors, enjoying a good meal, and having heated discussions about the Dharma<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We just keep living, trying to avoid the extremes of complacency and panic as we go.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"