What If A Collapse Happened And Nobody Noticed?

[GliderGuider]

75. I'm absolutely thrilled to be alive at this moment in history.

To be a witness to changes this dramatic, to see the pinnacle of a global civilization in action and to be aware of the beginning of the slide is a gift from the gods. However...

Discovering what was really going on threw me into a period of massive despair that lasted about 5 years. It started from the moment when I figured out the potential implications of Peak Oil in 2003 and connected that with other events in the world like climate change and 9/11. The despair got worse and worse over the next 5 years as I expanded my study of the crisis into different disciplines looking for Solutions™, only to discover at every turn that there weren't any. It turns out that what we're facing is not a solvable Problem™ but simply a predicament.

My breakout began with the realization that massive change has always been a part of the human experience (Toba, ice ages, massive droughts...) and that this situation is just more of the same. Once I had surrendered to the idea that the change is inevitable I was able to release my attachment to the desire for things to stay the same - diving into Buddhism for a while helped a lot with that.

Then came the realization that life goes on no matter what, and that people have always been able to find happiness even in the most immiserating times. Such happiness tends to come not from solving the big problems of the world (which I'd already accepted as being impossible) but from making a difference closer to home - among family, friends and my immediate community.

This shift has allowed me to regain my optimism and joy about being alive, while still remaining fully aware of what's happening (and what is probably about to happen) in the big picture. I found the journey from 2003 to today to be very hard work. There were times I almost gave up, with everything that implies. But lately the hard work has come with positive rewards, not simply a lessening of my own inner misery.

This journey has been my Dark Night of the Soul, as I suspect it is for many others. My re-emergence from that Dark Night back into the light, while still carrying all the gloomy treasures I discovered during the passage has been a remarkable, life-affirming transformation.

I'm spending a lot of effort these days not just in waking people up to the crisis ("Quick! Wake up and kiss your children goodbye!" isn't much of a rallying cry, as I discovered) but in acting as a witness to the unfolding of the change and to the power of the human spirit to confront such events and grow in the process.