Language and Writing

Image via Vera Grossman

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” — Toni Morrison

I can only say I hope Toni Morrison is right. We need caring people to speak up. We need people who “do language” to use it in this moment of crisis. Looking back in time we can see how crises have progressed from localized to generalized. Is there a place on earth where there is no crisis?

Bhutan maybe?

What is the source of our troubles? What is causing our political, economic and climate worries? Could it originate with the human species? But we are so brilliant! How could it be?

If you look a little closer you could be forgiven for spotting a lack of kindness, a lamentable lack of generosity, even — if I may be so bold — a kind of common heartlessness in the human animal.

Not everyone. I’m not painting the whole human species with the same brush, but it’s obviously enough to tip the scales toward ecocide, wars and endemic poverty.

Plagues of locusts, in other words.

We humans can do better, but we “artists” do need to rise to the occasion, it seems to me. This is not the time…