SOLASTALGIA

     If that is a new word for you, it is just as new for me but is just perfect for its definition and its connection to our times. It was coined by Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher, ( and I did not know there was such a category, but why not), and it has a combination of roots for its meaning. It combines solace or comfort, or the lack of it, desolation and nostalgia at the distress of seeing a familiar world, a known environment, a supportive environment, transformed drastically by fire, flood, drought and other disasters, both natural and manmade. Basically is it an intense homesickness for what was, what was known and familiar, and now is almost, if not totally, unrecognizeable. And worse, apparently will be no more. Ever.
     What better word to describe every environment we know, from political to natural, from weather to food production, from flooding sea waters to parched former arable lands. Add to this the food insecurity, the loss of the sure possibility to protect family, provide all basic needs, the insecurity of the future, being unable to prepare for it, and knowing that there is no one out there willing to step forward and say the harsh truth, demand the difficult, maybe even the impossible if we are to make this planet of ours a workable, sustainable environment for life.
     Worst of all is the solastalgia we have when we look around at our political environment. There is no longer any trust in our elections, a basis of democracy. There is no trust or honor or respect to or from the ostensible leaders of society who have abdicated their true roles and left the people bereft of all they need at a most crucial moment.
     When we look around all we see is filth and dirt, literal and figurative. We see despair, ennui, desolation, lack of any positive feeling and all surrounded with toppings of cynicism and selfishness. We wonder whether or not the friends we have will be enough, will our family remain together even as the world shatters and distance increases the difficulty of togetherness.
     Yet the world continues and we chase the next fad, the next "stuff" we desire, the next big house or fancy kitchen, the next research for cures even as we price them out of range of those who need them. Why do we do this? Why are we so blind to all this? Perhaps it is because there is a note of optimism that remains there, deep down, an eternal thought of salvation, of help from somewhere, man and natural or G-d and supernatural. We refuse to give up all the way, with nothing left but the rim of the cliff. 
     I myself vacillate between thoughts and hope and sheer desperation and frustration at the blindness we have imposed upon ourselves. I wonder how we can tolerate an awful and dangerous threat to our survival in the person of Trump and coterie, even as there are good people who fight the good fight, persist in the face of the impossible.
     I wonder. I think. I hope. I despair. I wander at times in an unknown land. Where are you.