J-Money

1. borrowing misery from future

2. carrying grief of the past

What if the children go to schools unafraid of tear gas and bullets?

What if the birds come back, and the bees are healed, and every species moves from endangered, to threatened, to thriving?

What if the rainforest ADVANCES?

What if every parking lot had solar panels? What if every structure had solar panels? What if we built climbing gyms and terraced gardens in the skeletons of old coal power plants?

What if you baked your neighbor bread, and they shared their home-grown blackberries?

What if every person who needed a home, had one? What if every person who needed healing was healed?

What if every body was treasured for what it was, not what it should be?

What if every trans child's parents attended their graduation, their wedding, their new-name-day?

What if every warehouse became a closed-circle repair station? Goods flowing out, and back, and out again? What if landfills started to SHRINK?

What if the water and air were clean? What if there was enough public transit that the cars dwindled, leaving the streets safe for kids on bikes, evening deer, midnight cats and foxes?

What if we win?

The condors are back. The whales are saved. The sea turtles are no longer endangered. The cranes are back. The bees are recovering. The air in LA and Tokyo and London is clean again. The aquifers in the LA Basin are refilling.

Children are kinder than previous generations. Parents are stopping the abuse cycle. Being trans and queer is more acceptable than ever on a ground level.

It's hard to see if you're young, if you don't know how to step back from social media and the news. But remember--bad news sells, and the algorithm knows despair keeps you scrolling. It's a skewed lens.

We are fighting and we are winning against this adminstration's bullying. We are coming together against the bullies and they are running away scared because they don't understand that we will do that.

People are working hard every day to find ways to make sure fewer animals get hit by cars and planes and rockets.

Maker spaces are more common than ever. Solar and wind are more common than ever. Coal plants are shutting down every day.

Unprecedented numbers of acres are being bought back or given back to their rightful stewards, and the world heals because of it. People are working hard every day to learn how to help a forest recover faster.

We are not at zero. We are at decades of effort to heal the world. We've come SO far.

In 1982 there were only 22 California Condors left in the world. In 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with its public and private partners, began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild. In 2001 the first wild nesting occurred in Grand Canyon National Park since re-introduction. In 2002 there were only 8 pairs of wild nesting birds population-wide. In 2008, for the first time since the program began, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity. Today there are nearly 500 – more than half of them flying free in Arizona, Utah, California, and Baja Mexico.

When I was born, there were no condors in the wild. I'm 37 now, and there are over 250 condors flying free.

When my mom was born in 1955, there were days when she wasn't allowed to go outside to play, because of the air pollution. When I was born, that never happened anymore.

When I was born, humpback whales were critically endangered, and people thought they were going to go extinct. Today, they've recovered to exceed their recorded numbers. Other whales too!

We fixed it.

It's still far from our reach.

In addition to all that was mentioned above:

The likelihood of dying in infancy or childhood--or losing a child--has plummeted just in my lifetime. The likelihood of dying in a natural disaster is the lowest in recorded human history. Yes, even with the uptick in natural disaster intensity from climate change!

Humans alive right now are more likely to have access to healthcare, electricity, education, birth control, clean water, and nutritious food than at any other point in human history. There are so many diseases we can treat now that were a death sentence for 90% of human history.

This is not by accident. This is because generations of humans put in work to make life better for their communities.

Some of our solutions had the side effect of creating other problems--better access to electricity that ultimately made people's lives easier and safer led to pollution and climate change, for example--but we are tackling those knock on problems too. Our generation's solutions to our current problems will probably create their own less-bad side effects for the humans after us to deal with.

“I’m not buying it,” he says, low and rough with waking, with healing that’s coming too hard and too slow.

Steve lets out a long breath.

One of those days.

It’s what he tells Dustin on the walkie, trusting that he’ll pass the message along. How the party deal with it is always left up to them, but he figures it’s fairer to prepare them, let them decide. It’s even odds whether Dustin will avoid Steve’s place, or whether he’ll spend hours trying to convince Eddie, pulling out every trick in the book and then a hundred more besides.

“I’m not buying it,” Eddie says, stabbing vengefully at his pancakes, and Steve is just grateful for the lack of neighbours when he tips his head back and bellows, “you hear that, Henry, you piece of shit?”

Steve had started out like Dustin, optimistic, but now when it’s one of those days he just keeps his head down and bullies through.

“We’ve got to change your bandages,” he says, at his very blandest, and Eddie grins his most cynical grin, a hectic fevered flush brightening his cheeks.

“It’s a nice touch,” he says. “The veracity is impressive, attention to detail, y’know. One DM to another, you’re doing some fine work.”

Steve grits his teeth and levers Eddie to his feet.

Unsurprisingly, Eddie won’t take his drugs when they’re done. He’s lost all the colour in his face, and there’s sweat rolling down his forehead, and he smacks Steve’s hand away hard enough to leave a mark.

“Really looking forward to you being a bitch about this all day,” Steve finally snaps, and Eddie barks out a laugh that’s swallowed up by a groan.

“You know,” he says thoughtfully, after a moment, “I’d take it as a personal kindness if you’d choose someone else’s face, Henry old chap.” He pats Steve’s cheek, and his fingers are almost as cold as the metal of his rings, and when they rest against Steve’s skin he can feel them trembling. “My dad would be a stretch, sure, but I promise to buy into it if you pretend to be Wayne.”

He’s a little rambler than usual, eyes not quite tracking, and it’s killing Steve that this is the best they can do for him for now.

“It’s just,” Eddie says, leaning closer, confiding, “you do a pretty good impression of him, see, and it’s kinda ruining the narrative to have King Steve Harrington being so sweet.”

Steve swallows an inexplicable lump in his throat.

“You don’t think I can be sweet?” he asks.

“I think,” Eddie says, “I might very well fall in love with you, imaginary Steve Harrington, and I don’t think that’s the torture vibes we’re going for here.”