First plant the sapling

I. Like a Turner Sunset

Isn't this photo beautiful, like a Turner painting?
"The finest sky, to my mind, ever put on canvas," written of a Turner sunset at the Tate.

You can see the movement of colors––dripping, blowing, bubbling–– some emerging, some obliterating...

 
I took the photo as I was biking down the Greenway path this spring.
It's the remains of a fire under a highway overpass, where people living outside were cooking or keeping warm.

There can be beauty in the breakdown, as it reveals new realities.  There's for sure discomfort in it.

II. Dissonance Reduction

I finished reading Collinson's Reformation last night.
When reality doesn't match people's beliefs and expectations,
writes the author, historian Patrick Collinson,
people don't usually change their minds, they (we) change how they see the reality.

What's the name for that? It's a reaction to cognitive dissonance...

*quick google*
Oh, here--it's called dissonance reduction.
Neat! It's the name for how we seek to reduce the unpleasant feelings when belief and reality clash––naturally, but probably not logically...

Even if we change our beliefs, do we change our actions?

Most of us will choose to keep doing what we're doing––
I had a hamburger last night––and, who ordered Christmas presents from Amazon?

III. First plant the Sapling

There's a saying in the Talmud,
"If you have a sapling in your hand and they tell you 'The Messiah is coming' first plant the sapling, then go to see him."

"From this moment despair ends and tactics begin"

Above: Banksy mural at the Marble Arch, London, April 2019, in support of Extinction Rebellion actions

I was thinking about that--how we choose our old beliefs & habits over new realities-- as I hear people complain about actions by the climate crisis group Just Stop Oil (an outgrowth of Extinction Rebellion).

I haven't seen such actions here in MN (yet?), but they involve people blocking gas stations, throwing paint on famous works of art, etc.
Their idea is to draw attention through nonviolent protest to the need to take drastic & immediate action to stop environmental destruction and social breakdown.

I see and support their point; I admire their guts;
but I'm not sure the tactics of these eco-activists will be very effective, given how we practice dissonance reduction.

Still, what the hell? What have you got to lose by doing something?
At least you can say you tried.