It's OK to Look Up

 

In fact we should.

With release of Netflix’ film Don’t Look Up, the not looking up meme entered our culture, and unfortunately for some folk, became their mindset. The film is a dark, satirical commentary about climate change and the inevitability of a ginormous, hugantic comet colliding with Planet Earth, destroying all life as we know it. The film hypothesizes how this looming global catastrophe plays out in current national arenas of politics, business, and social media. Spoiler alert! - the tale doesn’t end well for us humans as well as the rest of all earthly flora and fauna. No one lives happily ever after. 

So not looking up is really not a healthy modus operandi. In fact, aside from looking down to steer clear of hazardous to your health winter potholes and black ice, looking up is the way to go. Here’s why ……

 

When one gazes skyward at a boundless expanse of space, the possibilities appear infinite. All options are on the table. The canvas is blank, and therein lies the inspiration which sows seeds of creativity. Those seeds await the right time to germinate to yield new vistas for an enhanced quality of life. 

 

Looking up is also what we do with mentors. There is so much acquired wisdom to be gleaned from those who have been  around the block before. 

Learning from a mentor is also an opportune time for intergenerational bonding, allowing a younger generation to tap into a wellspring of experienced learning that can only come from those having been there and done that. It’s a veritable win-win.

Then there are parents and teachers.  

Who among us has not had the arc of their life bent by looking up to those who nurtured us from Day One? Or how about teachers who taught us about the world and later on helped set the direction of a career path? I certainly have. As the Covid Era has demonstrated, parents and teachers are true front line workers, an essential but too often unsung cohort without whom we would be lost. Looking up to them is the right thing to do.

Now getting back to the ‘comet’ of Don’t Look Up …. The film posits a humongous space rock indisputably on track to hit and vaporize Earth. Unfortunately for Don’t Look Up skeptics (and the rest of earthly life), inaction by keeping their heads in the sand and not looking up will soon render them history. But in the real world, we need to look up. That’s key to unlocking the potential of the human mind. That incredible asset, nurtured in part from those who’ve already amassed wisdom of the ages, can unleash a power to achieve the unachievable and bend the arc away from what appears inevitable. Perhaps then the comet, aka the climate change beast, will be tamed.

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images ©David Greenfield

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