You only lose if you refuse to fight. Look, I know it looks hopeless. I’ve been fighting for energy transitions for 25 years, if you think I don’t know what hopeless feels like? I have good news for you though. The future didn’t always look this dark once. That also means you don’t know how bright it might be around the next bend. I will probably not live to see victory if it happens; and it may never happen. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth going down fighting anyway.
In the frame of reference of the grand scope of the universe, everything anyone anywhere has ever done is inconsequential. But in the frame of reference of right here, right now, what you chose to be, matters. It matters to everyone around you, everyone you care about, and it matters to you. MY fight isn’t over until I choose for it to be over or someone takes me out. Is yours?
I’d love to be wrong, but at 54 years of age. I know a defeat when I see one.
It’s over.
When a woman was shot the face in broad daylight in front of witnesses and nothing was done about it- it was over. When a nurse helping a fellow citizen was murder for his efforts, in broad daylight- and nothing was done about it- it was over. When legal citizens are deported DAILY and never heard from again- and nothing was done about it- it was over.
The old world dies and the new struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters. It is neither the first time or the last. America may be done but “it” isn’t over. At 44 I’ve had to reinvent my identity from scratch more times than I can count, and I am so very tired. But life doesn’t end here just because one order falls. In every time of monsters, heroes rise. Every Luke Skywalker needs his Master Yoda. Every Ang, needs his Uncle Iroh. I may not Bea young man at the peak of his ambition anymore. But I am ready to put myself on the line one more time. To show my son, my daughter, and anyone else ready to hear that there can be a tomorrow worth sacrificing everything for.
An old man was planting fruit trees, when two boys found him and asked, “Old man, why do you plant fruit trees. They are so young and it will take forever for them to grow. You’ll be long dead before you will ever eat their fruit.” The old man said to the boys, “You’re right, I will never live to see their harvest. That’s not why I plant them. You see, I have sons about your age who will one day inherit my land. With the fruit from these trees they will feed our village for generations to come.”
I know you’re tired friend. I know you’re mourning the orchard as it burns. I know the world we grew up in is ending and the monsters are everywhere. But IT is not over. Now is the time for old men to begin planting trees they will never see the fruit of.
You said it better than I ever could. Yes. That’s is what I mean. What we knew is done. What we have yet to learn is uncertain. Everyone is trying to hold on to how things were, but that’s done. It’s over.
If you’re still breathing it’s not over. So better stop with that defeatism, because you have no idea what is next. It isn’t over, you’re still alive so get involved!
You only lose if you refuse to fight. Look, I know it looks hopeless. I’ve been fighting for energy transitions for 25 years, if you think I don’t know what hopeless feels like? I have good news for you though. The future didn’t always look this dark once. That also means you don’t know how bright it might be around the next bend. I will probably not live to see victory if it happens; and it may never happen. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth going down fighting anyway.
In the frame of reference of the grand scope of the universe, everything anyone anywhere has ever done is inconsequential. But in the frame of reference of right here, right now, what you chose to be, matters. It matters to everyone around you, everyone you care about, and it matters to you. MY fight isn’t over until I choose for it to be over or someone takes me out. Is yours?
I’d love to be wrong, but at 54 years of age. I know a defeat when I see one.
It’s over.
When a woman was shot the face in broad daylight in front of witnesses and nothing was done about it- it was over. When a nurse helping a fellow citizen was murder for his efforts, in broad daylight- and nothing was done about it- it was over. When legal citizens are deported DAILY and never heard from again- and nothing was done about it- it was over.
It IS over.
The arc of the moral universe bending toward justice sometimes takes longer than three to four weeks.
The old world dies and the new struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters. It is neither the first time or the last. America may be done but “it” isn’t over. At 44 I’ve had to reinvent my identity from scratch more times than I can count, and I am so very tired. But life doesn’t end here just because one order falls. In every time of monsters, heroes rise. Every Luke Skywalker needs his Master Yoda. Every Ang, needs his Uncle Iroh. I may not Bea young man at the peak of his ambition anymore. But I am ready to put myself on the line one more time. To show my son, my daughter, and anyone else ready to hear that there can be a tomorrow worth sacrificing everything for.
An old man was planting fruit trees, when two boys found him and asked, “Old man, why do you plant fruit trees. They are so young and it will take forever for them to grow. You’ll be long dead before you will ever eat their fruit.” The old man said to the boys, “You’re right, I will never live to see their harvest. That’s not why I plant them. You see, I have sons about your age who will one day inherit my land. With the fruit from these trees they will feed our village for generations to come.”
I know you’re tired friend. I know you’re mourning the orchard as it burns. I know the world we grew up in is ending and the monsters are everywhere. But IT is not over. Now is the time for old men to begin planting trees they will never see the fruit of.
You said it better than I ever could. Yes. That’s is what I mean. What we knew is done. What we have yet to learn is uncertain. Everyone is trying to hold on to how things were, but that’s done. It’s over.
What happens next is up to a lot of variables.
If you’re still breathing it’s not over. So better stop with that defeatism, because you have no idea what is next. It isn’t over, you’re still alive so get involved!