Dark Days: Struggling to Stay Upbeat in Troubling Times

["DAVID FARBER" <dfarber () me com>]

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Subject: Dark Days: Struggling to Stay Upbeat in Troubling Times
> Date: December 14, 2018 at 3:23:45 AM GMT+9
> To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>, DAVID FARBER <dfarber () me com>
>
> Dave, FYI, my latest column for Scientific American. John Horgan
>
> Dark Days: A science writer struggles to stay upbeat in a troubled time. <>
>  
> I recently found myself leaning on a rail that separated me from the mighty Hudson River. It was dusk, the end of a 
> cold, cloudy day. As the sky behind the Manhattan skyline faded from gray to black, the lights on the spires of the 
> Empire State Building and Freedom Tower gleamed more brightly.
>  
> So I thought. I even came up with an aphorism: “The darker the sky, the brighter the lights.” Then I realized what I 
> was doing. Nice try, I chided myself, but that’s pathetic, you’re grasping at epiphanies.
>  
> These dark days are getting me down. I try to maintain a bright outlook, as a matter of principle. I brainwash myself 
> with pep talks about how terrific life is, life in general and mine in particular. I remind myself of all I should be 
> grateful for. A good job, healthy son and daughter, girlfriend who only occasionally finds me annoying. I get to 
> write about things I care about. But the darkness is seeping into me...
>  
> I have good reasons for being glum. I’m 65 years old, on the downslope of life, and civilization, too, seems to be 
> descending. Bill McKibben, the environmental writer/activist, wonders in a recent essay 
> <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/how-extreme-weather-is-shrinking-the-planet>what it will take for us 
> to take climate change seriously. The planet keeps giving us warning signs--fires, droughts, heat waves, floods, 
> storms, melting ice caps, rising seas, vanishing species--and yet we continue blithely skipping down “a path to 
> self-destruction,” McKibben writes. He assures us, dutifully, that “there is nothing inevitable about our fate,” but 
> his essay is less call to action than cry of despair...
>
> Continue at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/dark-days/ 
> <https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/dark-days/>




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-a538de84&post_id=20181213181149:762B83F6-FF2C-11E8-84D7-8F974281675E
Powered by Listbox: https://www.listbox.com