Priorities

 

With multiple projects on the go, all at once, it's much like keeping those precariously balanced spinning plates ON their respective sticks.

As a child, one of our Sunday activities was to watch the Ed Sullivan show after dinner.  Frequently he would have various acts on that did amazing things, like the spinning plate guy.  We would watch as he swiftly moved along the line of sticks adding more spin to each plate, adding more sticks and more plates.  Would he be able to keep them on their sticks?  Or would they lose momentum, wobble and fall?

Life as a professional weaver/author/teacher has been a a line of sticks with plates spinning with me running from one to the next, adding a bit more spin, trying to keep them spinning.  I had to learn how to juggle deadlines and prioritize the things needed to be done in order to bring each project to completion.

Even when I was young and had energy and determination to burn, things would get overwhelming, but by and large I managed.  Things may not have been 'perfect', but they would get done.

Now, I have even less energy and my determination is getting pretty thin as well.  And yet.

I still have heaps of paper/books etm on my desk, and, right now, on the floor of my office.  Because once again I am juggling several projects, with too few spoons in my day to keep those plates spinning.

More and more often I am having to ask people to help me.  Something that is very difficult for me to do, but do it I must.

The homework for Olds has begun to arrive and I know how anxious the students are to get their mark, so marking has taken over as a 'priority', but my editor has begun working on the ms so that *also* needs to be a priority.  I have a Zoom lecture for SOS tomorrow, so *that* is also a priority.  OTOH, I woke up with my 'usual' sinus headache and find myself unable to do much that requires the little grey cells.  Not, at least, before the 2nd cup of medicinal caffeine gets onboard!

What I would like to be doing is firing up the loom and weaving those fuzzy hearts, but I also have personal maintenance this afternoon, and when I look at my priorities, I have to rank them, triage them, so to speak, as to which ones will get done today.  And it's not looking good for the weaving.  It will have to wait until tomorrow after the Zoom.  If I have any spoons left after two hours of intense information dumping.

Spring has arrived and warm weather is predicted.  With that comes the potential for flooding as the snow melt heads to the lowest level.  Rivers which have been at record lows for water depth will begin to fill, and potentially overfill their banks.  Flood plains will flood (who could have foreseen *that*?), people will be inconvenienced - or worse.  There are already reports of mountain roads washing out.  

But climate change is a myth. Uh-huh.

I have been aware of environmental damage since Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring.  In the early 1980s I began composting, which reduced the garbage we sent to the landfill by a large amount.  When this community began a recycling program we started saving our paper and sending it to be recycled.  As the recycling programs expanded we set up a recycle storage area in the kitchen and do our best to separate and recycle things.  We buy vehicles that are fuel efficient, and are looking hard at a hybrid.  An all electric vehicle in our climate doesn't make much sense, at this time.  Things may change - eventually.  For now a hybrid is our best choice.  Even so, I've done 'circle' routes for years, planning out the most fuel efficient way to get to the places I need to go.  Public transit was never a big priority in this town and still isn't.  So I either walked, or drove.  Now I can't walk long distances, so if I need to go somewhere, it's use the vehicle.

We are reaching the tipping point where we are going to ruin this planet for life pretty quickly if we don't do something about it.  

It may seem like an individual can't do much, but there are things that a person *can* do.  Find out what you can do, then do it.  Advocate for measures to improve the situation.  Give up some things, like cheap clothing that falls apart quickly, or learn how to mend them.  Visible mending is becoming 'fashionable'.  I don't do that, but I do buy clothing and wear it until it is worn out, not just replace it with something 'new' just because it's a new season.

Some people put in a veggie garden so that they have fresh veggies.  Some people carpool when they can.  Some people eschew long trips abroad.  The one thing worse than flying is taking a cruise ship, both of them heavy polluters.

Human beings need to look at their priorities and decide: do we kill this planet or do we try to save it?  Not just for us, but for all of the life on it.  We forget that this planet was not put here for human beings; that we are not the boss of this planet, nor better than any other life form.  We are merely part of the entire cycle of life and it might be a really good idea to respect ALL life and learn to live together - not just human beings, but all of our 'relations' (as the Indigenous perspective puts it).

When you know better, do better.  Doing the best I can to learn what I can do, then doing it.