Stay Focused
It’s hard to stay focused…
As much as one might want to help others and express concern for the difficulty they face, we can be selfish. The weather is a consistent topic of conversation. I always have some meaningless comments on today’s weather. This is odd because I have spent most of my life living in predictably mild climates. Today’s weather is something we can do little about. The only thing we can control is how we prepare for the weather not control it. Global warming presents us with a unique situation. We have grown up with the understanding that we cannot do anything about the weather. We can only learn to deal with what the weather presents. Warmer jackets when it is cold or seeking shade by the pool when it is hot. Global warming, however, is a situation where we as humans can do something. Scientists tell us that it is a correctable problem. If we do not do anything then we can only attempt to exist in it. It is a psychological and scientific challenge. We have grown up with the belief that weather is beyond our control and yet we are being asked to change our behavior so that we can change the direction that weather is taking around the world.
The other massive impediment to correcting this problem or any other global problem is focus. Remember when the Haiti Earthquake happened and there was an outpouring of concern and help? Now all you hear about is gangs in the streets of Haiti. I suspect the same people struggling after the earthquake are still struggling. We have lost focus on the problem and moved on to another.
The heat wave is all over the news and all over the southwestern United States. It is another topic to be concerned about and demands our focus and sympathy. Three thoughts came to mind as the news focused on the people suffering through the heat which is the result of global warming.
1. We are sympathetic towards these people now, but as I sit here in 65-degree weather looking over the San Francisco Bay ---- will my sympathy quickly turn to the same forgetfulness as the Haiti earthquake?
2. Will this suffering convince the global warming deniers that it is time to work together and solve this problem? Or will they choose to continue to support the further development of fossil fuels and selfishly protect their individual needs?
3. Finally, I thought similarly to my gun-toting evangelical brothers when struggling to find a reason for a “Blue State” disaster ——- Surely, God is punishing this part of the country for their narrow-minded, judgmental view of, well, everything?
Stay focused my friends….