I used to believe that the world in the future would be scorched and desolate, filled with suffering, polluted soil and water, famine, war, and suffering. But I realized that this was a view that was taught to me—over many years, through many mediums, people and books. I learned to see the world this way. But I don’t anymore, because it is a false view.
I had the opportunity to put together a tribute anthology to Mary Shelley and her novel, The Last Man. The anthology (of the same name) includes catastrophic short stories that deal with end of the world scenarios, cataclysms, disasters and other apocalyptic themes. Each story deals in some way with the concept of being last—the last bookstore, the last snowfall, the last philosopher, the last day house, and so forth. As I read submissions from all over the world I expected to see stories filled with doom, but I found the opposite—hope. What I found was that even in the last vestiges of humanity, there was still a banner of hope.
Today, there are still many who see the future as a place of despair, but there are also many who see it with a sense of hope, a place where compassion for others exists, and the Earth is healed, and people are living in harmony once again. War is something that only museums display, and sickness, famine, and disease, are minimal.
In order to get to a harmonious planet, we have to share a view of what that future might look like. Through collective awareness and consciousness, we can make the future a healthy place.
Take a moment to write down what your view of the future looks like. Look at it from all angles. Do you see war or peace? Environmental damage that can’t be reversed, or clean streams and new forests? Do you see human rights violations becoming more prevalent, or equality? Corporate hegemony or corporations no longer sharing the same rights as people? Sickness or health?
It is important to have a view of the future, one of your own. Because if you don’t know, and your neighbor doesn’t know, and your friends don’t know, then two things will happen:
- Someone else will decide for you what the future will look like.
- You won’t know how to take steps to achieve the future you’d like to live in.
- As a response to imagining what the future looks like to me, I came up with the Ten Thousand Goddesses Project. The project consists of a museum of history and art, a center for community and celebration, and a domus, or long-term home for women. Collectively it is designed to be a place where community is fostered out of compassion. If we learn together and celebrate together, then we can live together. We can find out how the next person is getting on, and establish balance. We can enforce positive change, rather than clinging to the dismal images passed on to us by the media.
I remember reading a story about a group of modern shamans that sat together over a contaminated bottle of water. (See Light on the Water by Evelyn C. Rysdyk, Inner Tapestry, October/November 2011). Through collective mediation they were able to reverse the chemicals out of the water, and make it pure again. Do you believe it? Or is it a fairytale? Depending on your answer, depends on what you believe is possible, or within your power to change. The lesson here is that healing happens when we come together, and move past our own learned and established limitations.
So what is your view of the future? Write it down. Envision it. Tack it up so you can look at it every day.
Join me in deciding the future of Earth. It’s our home and everyone has a say—even if you don’t think you do—I’m here to say, you do. So get busy making a difference.
Hunter Liguore earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including, Bellevue Literary Review, Mason Road, The MacGuffin, Strange Horizons, SLAB Literary Review, Barely South Review, Steampunk Tales, and The Writer’s Chronicle. To learn more about the Ten Thousand Goddesses Project, visit: http://skytalewriter.com/index.php.