wanting does not make it so

 

heading toward the cliff

lemmings, and a cliff, are an apocryphal story,

the idea that a large group could somehow forget common sense,

self-preservation, and lose themselves to the herd,

even if the lemming story is not based firmly on actual events,

it expresses a truth we Americans are living these days:

countless smart, well-meaning folks

are emotionally hijacked and deny the obvious truth, in terms of climate,

that, if we keep going the way we're encouraged,

the cliff and the fall are our future,

the current administration worships the false god of fossil fuels,

the temptation of grabbing onto what we want to be true

and damning quantifiable, certifiable truth that shouts at us,

that there are cliffs ahead

and that our wanting something to be so

doesn't make it so,

we are in the midst of a lemming rush,

a truth deeper than whether lemmings can actually be that stupid,

I pray that we will wake up, and not be that stupid ourselves.

by Henry H. Walker

September 18, ‘25