Climate Crisis in Heart and Mind
Brattleboro is a wonderfully activist town, but people also need to gather in non-political spaces so that we can explore our thoughts and emotions on the climate crisis with vulnerability and honesty. Also, many people do not wish to be activists, and still need a community to meet the existential crisis in heart and mind.
Brattleboro Common Sense is creating and hosting apolitical spaces that allow folks to explore facing catastrophe, emergency, denial, and the deep state and nature of our hope. Some specific formats can include:
CCSA (Climate Change Support Anonymous) / FFA (Fossil Fuel Addicts):
Meetings in a smaller regular venue, following the theory that our reliance on fossil fuels constitutes an addiction and that its defense is an addictive behavior founded in denial.
Deep Friends’ Talk:
Intimate conversations among small circles of friends, in the company of a counselor (grief counselor), and/or a spiritual advisor, and/or a philosopher. A form of explicit “permission” to go deeper than usual talk even among people close to each other, and explore from the diverse angles above.
“What Is Climate Activism Doing To You”:
Climate activist hangout space to put aside the politics and touch base on the burdens and inspirations of the work. Perhaps moderated by a ‘heat and mind professional’.
“The Talk”:
Discussions with and among parents about explaining the climate crisis to their children.
Earth and Climate Recital:
Theatrical recital of poems with a theme relevant to climate crisis.
Playback:
Reproducing each others’ stories through movement, sound, instruments, scarves, and wooden boxes. Playback follows the emotional arc of even the most politicized story.
As with every page on BCS’s website, you are welcome and encouraged to comment here.
BCS Hosts a “Silent Storm”
Brattleboro Common Sense is creating apolitical spaces that allow folks to explore thoughts and feelings about facing the end of humanity at the hands of climate catastrophe. A “silent [brain-]storm” event was held this Summer at 118 Elliot, and attracted a crowd of 25 participants.
We watched the new documentary, Ice on Fire, which focuses on many “never-before-seen solutions designed to slow down our escalating environmental crisis… The film goes beyond the current climate change narrative and offers hope that we can actually stave off the worst effects of global warming.”
After the first thirty minutes of the film, which framed the crisis itself, the gathered sat with our response to the crisis in a silent reflection. We wrote whatever words came to heart and mind, and created an improvised montage from our written words on a table set up for that purpose (see embedded video). We then watched the rest of the film, which highlighted its featured proposed solutions.
After the movie ended, the group co-created another silent storm in which we wrote down thoughts and feelings in response to five themes: Declaring climate change an emergency; Conservation and sacrifice; Stewardship and indigenous wisdom; Inventions and innovations; and Local political action. The words and phrases were arranged on poster boards with those themes, which were then placed at separate tables where people clustered at will. Each cluster then broke the silence and discussed their experiences, current state of mind and heart, and visions of rescue and regeneration that arose from the theme.
BCS will continue to host a variety of creative spaces, private and public, for this kind of exploration.