I’m reading Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There at the same time as I am listening to a new podcast about ecological grief, or more specifically, getting beyond ecological grief. The two works support each other and support me, which is why I’m recommending them.

Cover of No Straight Road Takes You There

Solnit is facing the ecological crisis head-on, but also reminds us that no one can know the future. For example, in the past few years, no one could have predicted how global forces, wars, and economics would make renewable energy cheaper and more attractive than fossil fuels (attractive, that is, unless you are someone still determined to profit off of fossil fuels). She asks us to pay attention to the stories we tell or have been told, to look at the broad sweep of change, embrace unpredictability and be alert to what else can happen. The unforseen happens regularly. I find her embrace of incrementalism helpful. What needs to be done won’t be completed in my lifetime, but steps taken now will contribute and are worthwhile.

Solnit’s title brings me back to another great title: We Make The Road By Walking, by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. (Sorry, I don’t want to link to A—n, so I’ll let you find it yourself.) The point is, we get where we get by action and we can never be certain of where that action will take us. This is the book that made me an activist.

Cover of We Make The Road By Walking

Meanwhile, the National Observer has put out this new podcast called Beyond Ecological Grief. I know I’m grieving. I try hard not to let it paralyze me because this paralysis will make taking action more difficult. At time of writing, only two of the podcasts in this series have dropped. They are really worth listening to in some quiet room while you have a soothing cup of tea and maybe some emotional support nearby. Maybe your cat.

I’m suggesting the book and podcast together because I think they both focus on story and key for me is always story. (What else would I think? I’m a writer!) We need stories for what we are going through. They may be non-linear with many twists and turns. We need to remember the stories of the past so we know what we are losing and why we need to act. And we need to imagine the story of the future and know that any story we have heard so far is not written in stone.