"It'll have to be us" - Reflections from MOTH
- Georgina Gorman
- 58 minutes ago
- 2 min read
"It'll have to be us" and "You do not carry this all alone"
Two lines I haven't been able to get out of my head, or my heart, since attending MOTH Festival of ideas in London last Friday.
Credit to Alexandra 'Ahlah' Blakeley for the words and for leading an incredibly moving group singing experience. Of so many highlights, wonderful speakers, new connections and some familiar faces seen in real life for the first time, these two lines are the ones that stayed.
The paradox can feel overwhelming. No one is coming to save us. If we are going to change our behaviour, cut through the noise of billionaires and misinformation, fix our systems and give ourselves a fighting chance at a liveable planet, we need to do it. Right now. For some things, we are already too late.
The scale of the challenge, the urgency, and knowing what is at risk if we fail, can make even real achievements feel like a drop in the ocean. Nothing is fast enough. Nothing is big enough. Nothing feels like enough.
But we are not alone.
Something about gathering in a room full of people from all different backgrounds, all singing these words together, literally took the breath from my chest and brought tears to my eyes. Indigenous speakers, academics, lawyers, artists, economists, foresters, policy-makers, students, performers, each doing their best to show up for the more-than-human world. Each with a different part to play.
There is so much division during this polycrisis. It is easy to get pulled into the media narrative that everything is going to sh*t and everyone is evil. But in those rooms, in our communities, with our families, with Nature, we can feel it. We are not in this alone.
If everyone does their part, no matter how small or insignificant it feels, it will make a difference.
It can be enough.
With hope & warmth,
Georgina
Georgina Gorman
Exec Director TreeSisters
