And yet…we mostly don’t talk about it. We talk about climate change and news items, sure. But we rarely acknowledge the incredible pain behind it, if we choose to even let it into our awareness. We are all suffering. Every being on our planet is suffering. We could be so connected and united around this pain. But instead, we suffer in silence, in isolation, in despair, or we avoid suffering completely. We distract ourselves with the zillions of ways our culture (and likely if you’re reading this, our privilege) provides for distraction. We get more and more disconnected, which causes even more pain, which we use distraction to avoid…and on and on and on.

The pain around climate change and our role in it is immense. But when we compound it by pretending it isn’t there, or knowing it’s there but not knowing who around us is willing and able to hold that pain with us, it’s almost unbearable.