Let's Get Our Priorities Right

There's a little war going on in my tiny community. An arts group has fired its founder just as that person was handing over the reins to a new artistic director. Someone's retirement plans have been scuppered. Reputations and relationships are being ruined. Recriminations are zinging around the ether.

It's got me upset. But not for the reasons anyone involved might assume. I'm upset because all the time, money and energy being usurped to fight this battle would be infinitely better spent on fighting the climate change emergency.

I'm not saying the arts aren't important. They are. I know that music, along with other creative pursuits, has saved many a life -- and will become increasingly important as respite for those fatigued from battling government inaction, Big Money and Fossil Fuel Corporation intransigence, pignorant (from pretend ignorance) deniers, and, especially, pervasive public apathy in the face of the climate crisis.

But these days, ANY argument, quarrel, disagreement, squabble, fight, fracas, dispute, wrangle, clash, altercation, feud, contretemps, falling-out, tiff, row, blowup, rhubarb or shitstorm (thank you, online dictionary) that ISN'T about climate change and getting humanity to zero carbon is a dreadful waste of valuable time and energy and possibly money.

I'm trying to summon the courage to present that very rant at their next AGM. I'm going to ask them to rewind ... back to before the relationship went sour. (It's a technique that works in marriages.) And then to move forward like the adults they all are. Life is too short and there's too much good work to accomplish to squander precious personal and organizational time, energy and resources on misunderstandings, missteps and regrets.

Wish me luck! It's time we all start to realize what's important in this lifetime and get our priorities right.

Follow up: It's sadly vindicating when I write about a topic here on this blog and then a few days later see that someone famous and infinitely more scientifically literate than I am has since said something similar. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, has been lamenting the lack of scientific literacy in the United States. You can watch his video, How Science Skeptics Hold the World Back, here. (And hey, is he getting cuter or what? ;-)