ECOCIDE AND THE PSYCHE

ECOCIDE AND THE PSYCHE

Half way around the world, there is a community of people who live a subsistence agriculture lifestyle. They struggle to make sufficient food to nourish themselves, to send their kids to school (if there even is a school), and barely stay alive despite persistent political unrest, violence, and disease.

They are even more vulnerable due to climate change. The rains come heavy and then they stop for at least three to four months, if not longer. Weather is less predictable these days, less than it used to be. This community in Western Kenya is like many others. It is unique for many reasons, but it shares the same hardships that many communities face on a daily basis as a result of severe environmental degradation.

There is a concept that has been around for a few decades called "ecocide." It's been argued by various "earth rights" lawyers that the United Nations should adopt "ecocide" as an international crime. Imagine what the world might be like if international law would recognize environmental degradation and destruction as a crime! I learned about ecocide recently from Sharon Blackie who dedicates a chapter on the topic in her book called If Women Rose Rooted. There I learned about the efforts of ecocide thought leader and champion - Polly Higgins of the Eradicating Ecocide movement.

Ecocide, for me, is just as frightening and heart-wrenching a concept as genocide. After all, the destruction of our habitat is essentially the destruction of ourselves. Self-annihilation; it's possible and terrifying. The environmental destruction perpetrated almost solely as a result of the chugging machine of the consumer culture and industrialized world affects me (and likely all of us to some degree) at a very deep level; it's very visceral. But, I haven't let myself feel it until now. I realize that I have been engaging in "anxiety management" (shrugging it off as a problem larger than myself, staying busy, focusing on small issues to avoid the topic or the thought that we are slowly destroying the planet).

But, then my new friends from the K5Village project in Kenya (people that I've met only virtually and to whom I have sent money over the past year to support their sustainable agriculture efforts) sent me a picture right before New Year's 2018. And, it was like a stab in the heart; my heart broke. Or, I finally felt my heart broken.

It's an ewe with her newborn. Not a dying child, not a neglected elder, and not a typical disaster image. Maybe I'm desensitized to pictures of people suffering. But, the sheep. Oh, the sheep; and the baby. The animals who are under the care of people and live off the land TRULY made me pay attention. I knew I had to do something.

This post is not about my fundraiser (I am fundraising for a cause related to K5Village but not promoting it here). But, rather to reflect on how it is that I was at once desensitized and then sensitized to the suffering. And, to reflect on how it is that the knowledge of ecocide as a fact is affecting my own mental state and influencing at a deeper level whether and how I respond to cries for help.

I started to read about "ecotherapy", "ecopsychology" and then "eco-heroism" [a term used to great effect on me by Sharon Blackie in the book aforementioned]. These are all terms I had never heard of. "Eco" of course is Greek for "home." Think of "home" in an internal sense and an external sense. Where you live in your heart and where you make your home in the world. It makes sense. If our home is being destroyed (internal or external). If home feels like a wasteland (internal or external). If home is the natural world when you boil everything down to the basics, then no wonder I feel a desperate desire to save home! And, if everything within is without and vice versa then the home that is destroyed or at risk of being destroyed is also facing the same fate within. No wonder I feel so dry, sad, and vulnerable inside. This is more than just having a hard time with the travails and tragedies of the world. It's as if I'm experiencing it internally. There is a resonance.

So, what to do with that resonance? We can't fix everything all at once and not one of us can do it alone. Rather than get stymied this time thinking about a big problem and giving up, I decided to walk. It's the only thing I can do easily when I have the time to do it. I would walk in the wilderness (the forest) as much as I could; I would walk in solidarity with the people half way around the world who walk 6+ miles roundtrip just to retrieve water. And, I would walk to raise awareness of the predicament of my friends (human and non-human) half way around the world. And, that walking has become my "eco-therapy." It has become my "eco-heroine's" journey. It relates to my "eco-psychology." It's a quest. It is a way that I can deeply connect to myself - bring rainfall or find the well that will quench my own thirst, stop my own drought.

And, so I walk.

in the snowy field

in circles

and on paths

I'm walking 6+ miles per day for 90 days straight. Today is Day #18. I've already learned a lot from these walks in nature and look forward to learning more. As I do, I will be a part of repairing the world and my home - both inside and out.