Author, communicator and dancer Martin Keogh asked environmentalists, artists, CEOs, grassroots organizers, religious and indigenous leaders, scientists and concerned citizens how they find hope in hopeless times – and shares the answer in his inspirational new book, Hope Beneath Our Feet.
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night simply afraid of what the future holds?
After my son was born the details began to get through about what our species is doing to our world. Suddenly the fact that we are in an extinction event mattered.
To make it real for myself rather than a pile of statistics that bounce off my chest, I did a little exercise. I dropped two marbles into a metal garbage can to represent the number of species that go extinct during the course of one week in normal times. I then poured in 577 marbles to represent the number of species that go extinct during any given week now. Hearing these marbles crash moved this reality from the abstract into the visceral.
My nights became more wakeful until someone sent me a poem by Wendell Berry: “The Peace of Wild Things.” In this poem Berry recommends going outside and lying on the ground when you feel afraid.
I took the poem’s advice to heart. When I found myself awake, I would walk to the end of our street and continue into the woods and I would lie. Looking up at the stars I realized I was not big enough to hold these questions by myself; I needed the help of others. So I began to ask people how they were coping with the flood of news. The more people I asked, the more I realized I was not alone in asking.
I started sending the question to environmentalists, artists, CEOs, grassroots organizers, religious and indigenous leaders, scientists and folks who simply are concerned to hear how they would respond.
The first wave of replies came from people who feel resigned to imminent disaster. Several of these responses came with the addendum, “Hug your loved ones while you still have the chance.”
And then responses trickled and then flooded in from people taking time in their lives to seek remedies — some were gathering with their neighbors to build sustainability groups; others had started grassroots organizations; still others were negotiating a closer marriage between science and public policy.
Their responses have been compiled into the anthology, Hope Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World.
Here are a couple (of the many) quotes readers have liked and sent me from the anthology:
Dr. Vandana Shiva from her essay, Earth Rights
“Ahimsa, or nonviolence, is the basis of many faiths that have emerged on Indian soil. Translated into economics, nonviolence implies that our systems of production, trade, and consumption should not use up the ecological space of other species and other people. Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns that take more than we need, we are engaging in violence. Non-sustainable consumption and non-sustainable production constitute a violent economic order.”
Howard Zinn from his essay, The Optimism of Uncertainty
“Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
I began to sleep better, knowing so many people care and are taking a stand in their communities for what they feel and know in their hearts. These individuals helped me discover a major antidote for despair is engagement and participation.
About Martin Keogh
For over 30 years, Martin Keogh has taught interpersonal communication skills using the dance form Contact Improvisation on five continents. He is the founder of The Dancing Ground, which produces conferences and symposiums on gender, race and mythology.
You can see more about the anthology at www.hopebeneathourfeet.com and more about Martin at www.martinkeogh.com.
