How to write when the world is collapsing

SLOW WILDLIFE ON ROAD was such an odd sign to see in my inner-city neighbourhood. Someone had hand-written two signs on pieces of cardboard, placed fluorescent witches hats by their side, pasted a maple autumn leaf on each of the cardboards and voila! – a protective shield for the fauna in my backyard.

I wondered what wildlife manages to courageously take a stroll on the busy, urban streets streaming with cars, Uber-Eats deliveries, vespas and inebriated party folk on the weekends. But actually, it warmed my heart.

I felt a kind of relief that humanity can still bother to care about such things. That someone would go to the small trouble of drawing up a few make-shift signs to caution drivers – there is wildlife here, in the city, yes even here, how great is that?!

So take care. Please.

Collapse is a word weighing heavily on my mind today and before today. I’m thinking however that Collapsing is a better word. We are in the process of the things that were once held as unshakable, permanent and irrefutable slowly but surely collapsing. The grammar of the continuous present is more apt.

Our natural environment is weary from the pressure of never-ending growth propelled by capitalism, our institutions and leaders once somewhat trustworthy are being uncovered as corrupt, wars seem irresolvable and the gap between rich and poor is growing. We are under threat from AI.

Young people thinking about a career now wrestle with whether their careers will be redundant in a decade – they must choose from a suite of options that are AI-proof. There’s more but I’d be rehearsing some things that you would already be tired of hearing.

Is this just another cycle where the earth comes good in the end? Or is this The End? No one can really know that. But two things ring true. It will be messy and uncomfortable in this liminal space for some time, and there is a palpable sense of doom and gloom in the air today.

 It’s enough to make artists, writers and anyone creative who tune into the zeitgeist give up. What difference does a short story make in a world that is collapsing? Shouldn’t we give up creating and become activists?

And yet. And yet there are people who make signs to preserve wildlife, to caution drivers to pay attention to their environment, to slow down, to see that there is wildlife in the urban spaces- even here in the city. There are people who take the time to be concerned, to grieve at the loss of the natural habitat. They counter the prevailing overwhelming desire to give up and they create – even if its a few words on some cardboard placed on the side of a road. Creativity and activism are twins.

I sensed an urgency in those few words – SLOW WILDLIFE ON ROAD.

Was it telling us to go slowly? Was it saying that wildlife moves slowly so please be patient with these magnificent yet fragile critters?

Was it imploring us to care for the wildlife in my neighbourhood? Or the world? Maybe I was simply transferring my recent thoughts onto this act of resistance? Or was it tapping into something in me, a desperation for the fortitude to keep creating, to keep writing in a world that is collapsing?

Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski, Mission Catalyst – Formation and Fresh Expressions, Uniting Mission and Education. Karina also blogs at An Ordinary Mystic.