My grandson knows that, recently, he couldn’t go outside for ten days or so because of the toxic air quality from the horrendous wildfires. He looked up into the sky so high and said it was “Sooooo smoky.”
The sky is better now, thank God.
He doesn’t know what else is in the air these days, though.
I have two grandchildren now. Baby Matilda in Europe and Brooks (two and a half), here.
So far, they pretty much only know the good stuff.
I want to keep it that way, but how can I?
Is it a fait accompli or can I have any impact at all?
I was texting with a couple of friends the other day and we were commiserating on how awful things are right now in our world—and then I detoured and sent them an audio clip of Brooks singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” with the note, “This saves me.”
They agreed. It saved them, too.
And then, circling back to the condition of our world, I wrote, “He doesn’t know any of it yet.”
I don’t want to tell him.
So, I imagine…I wonder…
What can I do in the meantime—what can I actually do right now (and not do) so that the world is a less toxic, better place—when he and Matilda have to know what the world is like?
I have to believe what I do in the meantime matters.
Can you believe it with me? Can we work together to return the favor, and save them back even if it’s just a little?
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!