All at once,
The world can overwhelm me
There’s almost nothin’ that you could tell me
That could ease my mind
Today, I’m going to exercise some poetic licence – in a couple of very different ways. In a literal sense, I’ll be quoting a famous person’s poem. In a less obvious “poetic” sense, I’ll be straying from the topic of personal finance.
That quote above invoked some feelings, right? What about this next verse?
Which way will you run
When it’s always all around you
And the feelin’ lost and found you again
A feelin’ that we have no control
Did that strengthen those thoughts? I know I’ve been feeling all this since the middle of March.
What if I told you that this poem isn’t about what you think it is?
What if I told you that this was written more than a decade ago?
(What if I told you that I’m going to stop asking these rhetorical questions?)
There’s gonna be the new hell
Some say
It’s still too early to tell
Some say
It really ain’t no myth at all
I don’t know if this is a “new hell”, but sometimes it can feel like that, right?
Recently our government has said that this situation was “too early to tell” and it was a myth/hoax.
I wanna take the preconceived
Out from underneath your feet
We could shake it off
Instead we’ll plant some seeds
We’ll watch em’ as they grow
And with each new beat
From your heart the roots grow deeper
The branches will they reach for what
Nobody really knows
But underneath it all
There’s this heart all alone
Did I take the preconceived out from underneath your feet?
This “poem” is not really a poem. These are song lyrics.
The song is “All at Once” and it was written by Jack Johnson in 2008.
It’s about climate change, not COVID-19 (coronavirus).
Today is Earth Day. It’s the best day of the year to write about our solar panels. They are still a great value – one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
A few years ago, I wrote about how Jack Johnson is the champion of environment. He created the All at Once foundation to help with environmental causes.
This may not be the time to focus on the environment. The strange thing is that it’s okay. Physical distancing and closing of businesses is helping the environment more than almost anything we’ve done in the past. For example, Los Angeles has some of the cleanest air of any major city.
We’re learning that we can make a big difference – even if it’s by accident. It certainly isn’t the path that we would have picked if we had a choice. However, the results are stunning. We’re finally making progress for the first time in decades.
It’s very difficult to find silver linings during this time. For one day, or even a few minutes, let’s focus on this one.
Yes, I have been reading about how Earth Day is celebrating its 50th anniversary right when there has been an improvement in some environmental measures. Here in FL where we are, there has been a significant increase in sea turtle nesting.
I’m glad that you made it to Florida. I thought you were still in Costa Rica. It’s been awhile since I followed your story, but I hope the AirBnb isn’t too bad with all this.
I love this post. The universe has been trying to tell us for a while that we have to take care of the environment. This was one way of doing it.
If you are a fan of renewable and alternate energy sources then this Covid
Recession should be doubly troubling to you. By depressing the cost of fossil fuels electricity costs will see a lot of downward pressure and wind and solar will be harder to justify economically. When gasoline and diesel are less costly electric vehicles are also harder to switch too economically. Government subsidies on the state and federal level will also be likely reduced because so much money has been redirected to short term Covid crisis economic issues that there is less left for long range issues like climate change. People, and particularly political people, usually have very short time horizons on issues because they know most voters do as well. Of course energy markets are volatile and may not stay down long enough to impact newer energy sources.
Well at least we know for sure that we can help the environment by limiting our fossil fuel usage. You are right that cheap oil makes it hard to go solar, because it isn’t as cost effective.