“For the Children”

Larry Robinson is a retired psychotherapist and poet. In the early 2000s, he was the mayor of Sebastopol, California; his party affiliation was the Green Party. Around this time, he and I collaborated on a seminar in Santa Rosa. I no longer remember the topic of our seminar, but I remember Larry’s presentation style. In addition to his substantive concepts, clear thinking and articulate speaking, he would recite poems to accentuate his points. He’d lucidly expound on an idea, then quote a poem, taking us into the other side of our brain and another way of knowing.

Larry concluded his portion of the seminar with the poem, “For the Children”, by Gary Snyder. This poem has spot on relevance to the Crisis and Transition Substack theme in that it acknowledges the polycrisis, offers deep solutions, and affirms hope. It could serve as our theme song.

I haven’t analyzed a poem since high school lit. I wasn’t good at it then, or now. But given the collective mood, I want to share reflections on the wisdom I find in Snyder’s poem. My hope is that its poetic message can give us clearer vision and some renewed inspiration to press forward.

Here’s the poem:

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us,
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light.

“The Rising Hills, the Slopes, of Statistics Lie Before Us”

The rising hills of statistics Snyder refers to are, of course, the trends that are dragging humanity down. We need to be realistic about how foreboding these are. There’s no value in ignoring the reality of our situation.

Our Crisis and Transition Substack article, The Polycrisis in Numbers, highlights some of the more significant of these rising statistics. Some excerpts:

• Climate Crisis. In 2024, the average global temperature was 1.55 degrees above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, exceeding for the first time the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.

• Unsustainable Resource Use. As of this year, humanity is using the Earth’s natural capital at a rate that would require 1.75 Earths to sustain.

• Ecological Deterioration. As a result of human activity 6 of the 9 “planetary boundaries have been transgressed, with a seventh (ocean acidification) now close to being breached.

• Wealth Concentration. $79 trillion has flowed from the bottom 90% of Americans by income to the top 1% that would have remained with the bottom 90% if the income distribution had remained the same as in 1975.

• Erosion of Democracy. The annual Democracy Index score fell to a historic low of 5.17 in 2024. And the USA was downgraded from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy”.

• Civilizational Fragility. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock was recently reset to 59 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s ever been to midnight in its 78-year history.

And this list doesn’t include mention of increasing acidification of the oceans, rising rates of species extinction, the growing prevalence of depression, the ballooning debt bubble, the spread of water shortages, the buildup of toxins in the environment . . . and so forth. “Of everything, going up, up, as we all go down.”

This is the salient reality facing humanity. None of us are exempt from the threat it poses.

“In the Next Century . . . , Are Valleys, Pastures”

“For the Children” appeared in Snyder’s book, Turtle Island, published in 1974. So, we are now in the “next century.” In 1974, the polycrisis was not yet in such stark relief. Snyder could speculate that it might be the century beyond this one before we reach the “valleys and pastures.” But such a projection is no longer reasonable. What is reasonable is that the next decade will be when the polycrisis statistics peak.

When a statistic that is the measure of a crisis inevitably peaks — no imbalance can continue forever — the statistical curve drops into a “valley”. That valley could be one signifying collapse. The polycrisis could well bring a massive civilizational setback.

Just to cite one such possible outcome of the polycrisis, climatologists who have looked at a global temperature rise of even 2 degrees Celsius project this causing catastrophic impacts.

But this is not what Snyder sees in our future. He doesn’t see humanity in ruins. He sees the valleys as “pastures”. Google’s AI captures what I believe to be Snyder’s allegorical use of the word “pasture”:

A pasture symbolizes provision, sustenance, and rest. For example, the imagery of green pastures in Psalm 23 suggests abundance, peace, and spiritual nourishment.”

So Snyder’s valley is not the dystopian future of the handwringers, the preppers, the nihilists, or the hopeless and discouraged. It is a future society in which “we can meet there in peace.”

“They Say”

What is Snyder’s authority for holding out the promise of pastures where we can meet in peace? It is simply “they say.”

So, who is the “they” of “they say”?

Snyder is silent on this point. But I’m aware enough of the influences on his thinking that I’d like to put forward some pasture-future voices that he’d likely approve of. These are voices of people with deep vision, often spiritually informed vision.

David Korten, the former Harvard economist whom I’ve cited in several past articles, perceives that humanity is going through a “great turning” — from “empire to earth community”. He sees humanity amidst a perfect storm of converging crises that will precipitate major social and economic change — change so deep as to force replacement of the paradigm of “empire” with that of “earth community” — a social paradigm based on sustainable, just, and caring communities.

Joanna Macy, a scholar of systems theory and deep ecology, is the person most responsible for popularizing the term “the great turning”. Similar to Korten, Macy views the great turning as “a shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.”

Macy’s mythical sense of our pivotal times was influenced by the Tibetan Shambala Prophecy which foresaw a time when humanity, in a time of grave danger, would see arise people dedicated to dismantling the destructive forces through compassion and insight, bringing about change leading to a life-sustaining civilization. (See Joanna Macy on the Shambala Prophecy)

A similar theme is expressed in a message given by Hopi elders in 2000 which calls for human unity and positive actions during this period of global challenges. In addition to calling on people to live in harmony with the natural world, to come together in community (“the time of the lone wolf is over”), and to speak truth, it emphasizes the power within individuals and communities to create change, ending with the enigmatic affirmation “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Prabat Ranjan Sarkar, whose social philosophy has been frequently cited on this Substack, takes the view that the future “pasture” is not only within our means to create, but is an inevitable outcome:

Human civilization now faces the final moment of a critical juncture. The dawn of a glorious new era is on one side and the worn-out skeleton of the past on the other. . . . Just as the advent of the purple dawn is inevitable at the end of the cimmerian darkness of the moonless night, a gloriously brilliant chapter will also come after the endless reproach and humiliation of the neglected humanity of today.

“To Climb These Coming Crests”

Birth is not easy. To bring “a gloriously new era” into being at a global level is an extraordinary challenge, requiring the most sage guidance we can get. Snyder recognizes the weight of dispensing guidance during this auspicious moment in human history. His measured words of advice to us, and our children, are given in sutra-like compactness. I do not know the meaning he intended, but I have thoughts.

• Know the flowers. Snyder has acquired uncommon knowledge of the natural world. He can name the wildflowers. But knowing the flowers is more than naming them. It is to be connected with them. By my reading, he is calling on us to deepen our awareness of the world that brings forth life, as we are part of the life of the world, and if we don’t have intimate awareness of its life, we cannot live in harmony with it.

• Stay together. By nature, we are social animals. Ninety-nine percent of our history as a species was spent living in community, close and interdependent. These are roots we need to return to if we are to experience our full humanity. But staying together has even greater importance in this fraught time. During crisis, survival depends on staying together. As the Hopi elders say, “The time of the lone wolf is over.”

• Go light. To “go light” has two relevant meanings. First is to be unburdened, unencumbered — to not be weighted down by material things and desires. Not just individually, but collectively as well, for unbridled consumerism also burdens the earth to an extent that is now unsustainable.

“Go light” can also mean to go forward in the light — in the light of wisdom, of deep knowing. In a comment to a recent Crisis and Transition article, Suzanne Taylor expressed that we need to see ourselves as “as divine creatures in a sacred universe serving Earth.” It is this spiritual sense of our nature in which the light of awareness is brightest, and where hope for our future shines brightest.

The Shambala Prophecy speaks of the role that will be played by the Shambala Warriors in shepherding transition. Hopi prophecy speaks of a similar role to be played by the Warriors of the Rainbow. In like manner, P. R. Sarkar speaks of our need for “sadvipras”, people committed to spiritual truth and compassionate service, and dedicated to the all-round welfare of humanity as a whole.

These are archetypes of what has come to be called light beings, individuals aware of themselves as divine beings in a sacred universe, serving earth and all of its myriad living beings. They are the ones most dedicated to bringing forward a life-centered society and most capable of ensuring that the future of humanity is bright.