Whenever I think about the idea of humans actually “going extinct,” as Guy McPherson and other “doomers” expect — and in Guy’s case, soon, before 2030, he said at least one point — I can’t help but also think about how we just keep going, so many of us, despite the “science” of “global warming;” despite chem trails, poisoned food and water, crazy-acting people with guns, television and educational programming, fundamentalisms of all stripes, predatory capitalism gobbling up all earth’s resources while killing off millions of “useless eaters” through wars, chaos, forced refugee marches, foreclosure, prisons, pharmaceuticals, wage slave jobs, massive credit card, mortgage and student loan debt — on and on. Dragging us down, fogging our brains and hearts. And yet, and yet!

We humans are much more resilient than we tend to realize. Even in the midst of all the ghastly news, people keep falling in love and having babies. And these babies’ souls are choosing to come down here, to descend into this confusing, chaotic and seemingly End-Time. And some of these little souls are laughing, smiling, intensely loved by their young parents. For example, the daughters of two nieces of mine, both with their Dads. And wow, how dads have changed from when my children were young! So wonderful! Truly, these two dads are partners in parenting, rather than setting themselves apart as just the father who watches from afar — and has trouble accessing his own tenderness, his own vulnerability. It’s all come true! All the dreams we early feminists wished for! Not in time for us as parents, but certainly in the parenting and family life of a significant percentage of our sons’ and daughters’. And yes, that is how it works. The most important transformations take a long time.

By the way, these nieces of mine are savvy, very savvy. They know what’s “going down,” and yet they choose life. They continue to choose life, and to nurture it, inside the intimacy of family. The more people do this, the more people take the chance, no matter how bleak things look, to become parents of these beautiful little shining ones, then the more golden threads we humans weave from where we stand now into our, yes, deeply unknown, future.

Here’s an interview recommended by that old permacultural sage, Albert Bates. I’m going to listen to it over my lunch of Garden Tower greens with roasted vegetables.

Is Our Future Possible?