My Neighbour Across the Canyon

Written June 2022

I watch my neighbour across the canyon install new shades on his back deck. It’s gonna be a hot one. We can all feel it coming. This coldest-summer-of-the-rest-of-our-lives.

The earth’s heating up and so are we. Blood beginning to boil.

What are you scared of? Pick your poison.

A virus? The Climate Emergency? The ineptitude of government? Guns? The Police? Womb-holders losing our autonomy? War? Misinformation? The slow slide into Fascism? Go ahead, choose your Top 5.

There are only two ways to live right now. Horrified or distracted.

Please tell me I’m wrong.

That there’s another way to bliss besides ignorance.

It ain’t consumerism, though they’d sure have you believe it was.
It can’t be relationships, cuz love hurts when the future’s not bright.
And it sure ain’t religion, cuz those old tales aren’t right for our time.

“Live in the moment!” they prophesize, our very most chill.

Okay, I get that.

But unfortunately being present at this moment means waking up, not Savasana.

Do I see hope? Yes, but in only one thing:

Us. The majority. Who at our core, just want love and peace. There’s so many more of us than them, yet we let them rule…

So we either stand up, or get swept into the sea. And millions of years from now — maybe, just maybe — a new intelligent species will uncover our world and see the beauty we created, and the damage that we did.

And here we are, September. Thank you for coming along.

❤︎ Leora

Read previous Hi Let’s Life letters here

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