I see the maps of shrinking glaciers, images of polar bears on tiny ice floes. I see food prices rising in my supermarket. Lettuce is 2.99 a pound this week, up from 1.99 just two weeks ago.

What can I do? I can’t alter the infrastructure of my own country, the one that arose in support of the centralization of power and the amassing of profit, the one that privileges the automobile and caravans of semi tractor-trailers over other forms of transportation, and endless production over the health and vitality of living things.

Do you know the word juggernaut?

Stands of forests saved from clearcut last year will be clearcut next year. Plastic will continue to fill the ocean. Coal will still be mined to keep the lights on in the Midwest, no matter how vigilant I am about unplugging the countertop appliances.

Should I sit here in the dark?

Should you?

Of course things are impossible. Of course it’s all going to ruin. So? This morning I saw the first crocus, and yes, it’s a month early. But it’s blooming, all the same.