Friends, we are deeply aware of how unstable things are and how our personal lives are twined with the political, economic, and ecological worlds. And now, on top of the climate crisis and the chemical pollution crisis, which comprise the focus of our daily work at SEHN, our nation is at war with Iran, one of the world’s top producers of oil and natural gas. We watch as black rain, saturated with oil from bombed oil refineries and storage depots, falls over Tehran, a city of more than 9 million people that is already suffering from an unfixable, climate-fueled water crisis. War is an accelerant to climate change, which itself is an accelerant to water depletion, and it’s clear that the political, economic, and ecological consequences are shredding our fabric of shared destiny even further. And, of course, war also sends missiles into schools full of children. It all feels like moral injury. As we talked as a staff about what this issue of the Networker would explore, we decided that our usual contributions—facts and analysis—might add to your overload and sense of injury in this moment. We know that you are holding up your corner of the world and doing all you can to prevent further damage or unraveling. For many of us, that doesn’t feel like enough. How will we find our way forward in the days ahead? Perhaps the 13th century Persian poet Rumi has some advice for us as we cope with the injuries inflicted on us and the rest of the world. In his poem “Don’t Go Back to Sleep,” Rumi reminds us to stay vigilant, aware, and oriented toward connection: |
