“You Must Revise Your Life” to Solve Climate Change
William Stafford’s words ring true now
The great soft-spoken poet William Stafford published a book on writing titled You Must Revise Your Life. The title implies that writers must go deep, change their lives, and write from that place. It isn’t enough to simply edit the text — something deeper, richer, more meaningful, and more impactful is required of the writer.
Could there be a better statement to all of us about what is required now, in this time of impending climate disaster?
“YOU MUST REVISE YOUR LIFE!”
Our times call for this. It cannot be only that which comes from within. Circumstances of life make demands. You had to learn to drive a car. You had to go to school. Without a job, you cannot procure the necessities and goodness of life. Those are basic.
But also, you may find yourself in a war. Ask the Ukrainians. You may find yourself the target of senseless abuse. Ask the Uyghurs. You may find yourself facing unspeakable loss. Ask the parents of Sandy Hook.
Today, we all face climate change. Perhaps your city was flooded, like Fort Myers… or maybe your whole country, like Pakistan. Or maybe your city was burned, like Paradise, California. Or perhaps it is being scorched by drought, like Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa, or scorched by a heat dome in British Columbia — remember that? One hundred twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit for five days, six hundred dead, and a whole town, Lytton, BC, burned to the ground.
Indeed, we all face this change. There is no escape. Revision of our lives, in Stafford’s words, is our only hope.
Such revision is not a tweak around the edges. It must go to the core of what each of us chooses to do with our time on earth. We need everyone to commit to jobs that solve the problem. Climate solutions businesses — like solar, wind, geothermal, electric devices and vehicles — are screaming for workers. The Rocky Mountain Institute and Sierra Club have long lists of openings they want to fill. And what are you doing? Selling shampoo? Making video games? Like… really?
Everyone needs to make a living. I know. And a job — any job — is often better than no job. But there are openings in climate solutions and they need you! They need me! And the world is rapidly changing under the pressure of not going fast enough. You can help the system change faster, but it takes commitment. More than becoming a vegan. More than swearing off consumerism. More than “driving less,” whatever that means. It is the system. And you can help change it.
But you see, this is hard because it means that you must revise your life. All of us must revise our lives. But it is not about personal habits and consumption nearly as much as it is about what you do with your time. Are you building a solution? Or are you coasting, hoping others will do it? Is your best energy contributing? Or are you pretending that the job and company you work for really doesn’t matter? Have you committed your creativity, ingenuity, and problem-solving skills to the problem through your job? Or are you wasting your skills — skills the world desperately needs — on perpetuating a system that will doom us all? These are hard questions Stafford asks of us. These are the questions we must face in our current circumstances. They are the questions of our time.
You must revise your life. I must revise my life. We must all review and revise to make the greatest contribution possible to the benefit of humanity. Climate change is the one war we can all lose together. By revising our current draft, we can actually create solutions.
Get my poetry newsletter Soul Food: Poems by Anthony.
Get my newsletter on books called Arguments with Books.
Get Intertwine: Living Better in a Worsening World.
You can also follow a selection of my work on at https://medium.com/@ASignorelli.
Tony,
Thank you for creating this.
I just became a paid subscriber.
Warmly,
Kevin