Listening Makes a Difference
I worked at the Sustaining All Life booth at this year’s New York City (USA) Earth Day celebration. I had a great time listening to people talk about the climate emergency.
A man told me he didn’t believe in climate change. I asked him to tell me what he thought. I said he shouldn’t worry if nobody else at the event agreed with him, and I assured him I was there to listen.
He told me we were experiencing a “natural heat spike” and that it would end soon enough. (I wish he was right.) He said the scientists, the politicians, and the climate movement were lying. He expected me to argue with him. He said, “Tell me what your ‘thing’ is. Tell me the ‘thing’ you usually tell people.” I think he meant official rhetoric or organizational policy, but I didn’t think he was ready to listen to that because anytime I started to talk, he would interrupt me.
I said, “This is the ‘thing.’ This process of me listening to you while you talk about your experience with the climate is exactly the ‘thing.’ We’re here to support you while you figure it out.”
He went away, and then he came back. He said he was in bad trouble in the court system. He said it was supposed to be a fair justice system but that it wasn’t fair at all. He said, “Everyone lies—the politicians lie, the people who call themselves scientists lie. That’s why it’s hard to believe the news. Even judges in courtrooms lie.” I thanked him for stopping by and gave him a copy of the Sustaining All Life pamphlet. He thanked me for listening to him and said he would read the pamphlet. He said we were doing a good thing and turned and vanished into the crowd.
A young adult college student stopped by. I asked her, “Did you just happen to wander into the park today, or are you a climate activist?” She laughed and said, “I’m no activist!” I said no one can be alive in 2022 and not be active around the climate. She laughed again and said, “I compost.”
I started jumping up and down and cheering, and she laughed hard. I asked her to tell me about her composting.
She said the superintendent of her apartment building told her that composting was against the law. So she went to the company that manages her building, and they said they already composted in the basement. She told them, “No, that isn’t composting. That’s called ‘recycling.’”
After that, they stopped taking her calls. So she went to the City of New York and complained. The city agency got in touch with the management company and showed them how to compost. Now everyone in her building composts—and that’s what she meant when she said, “I compost.”
Sometimes we just need to do a little listening.
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 208, July 2022)