April has been struggling to spring into Spring in the DC area.  We started with a pretty cold snap at the beginning of the month and while the trees and flowers are starting to bloom into beauty, the weather is slow to cooperate. It’s crystal, clear and bright with an icy wind or overcast and muggy but warm.

April is the Cruelest Month

This isn’t anything new for this area. We get some false Springs and lose crocuses to a springtime frost. On the way to the bus stop with my younger son he asked why we still needed coats and pants when he was so ready for shorts and t-shirts.

I responded with, “April is the cruelest month,” the first line of T.S. Elliot’s The Wasteland.  It makes sense in this context. April dangles the hope of outdoor dining, perfectly comfortable spectating at sporting events, and wearing a jacket for fashion as opposed to warmth.

In reality, you may even need your winter coat again because of freak frosts and icy winds. Another great poet, Prince, said “Sometimes it snows in April.” And he was from Minnesota so he knows.

The Wasteland

After I said it,  I couldn’t remember if April being the cruelest month referred to the actual weather in April or something more metaphorical (my kid had zero follow up questions). So I went back to the poem. I read along while actors read the poem aloud, to get through it without a homework assignment looming , unless you count this post.

Not surprisingly, this poem written at the beginning of the 20th century, about the horrific aftermath of war and a sense of despair in the face of a looming apocalypse, felt very timely.

The poem contains descriptions of cruelty and despair from throughout the ages from Greek myths to what was then present day Europe.  There’s an invocation in Sanskrit to Be charitable, Be compassionate, and Control ourselves.

I was also struck by the apocalyptic imagery – stony rubbish, dead trees, dry stone, death by water, lack of water. T.S. Elliot may not have foretold Earth month but the decay and destruction in his poem is a result of the same structures that are putting us on a path there’s no going back from.

Some people find it depressing that we’ve been talking about the same things for hundreds of years. I feel motivated that together people made sure we’d make it this far. And with that motivation, I take action over things I can control.

Understanding and Taking action

My first job out of college was environmental fundraising and organizing.  I preferred talking to people about problems they could touch and see like trees in the National Forests or what we liked to call, charismatic megafauna – big cuddly animals like polar bears and pandas.

I hated canvassing on climate change. Climate change (or global warming as we called it then) was so abstract and so huge. It felt like convincing people to change gravity.

But that was me failing to make a connection that T.S. Elliot had made 100 years ago – if we keep going this way, we destroy ourselves. The way forward is

“Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata” – Be charitable, Be compassionate, and Control ourselves. All these systems and structures are interconnected.

“You cannot talk about climate justice without talking about environmental racism.” — Cee Stanley, CEO of Green Heffa Farms

What does that mean for a business?

These past few months, I like to leave you with some actual actions that I’m doing to be part of the solution and not the problem.

What are you doing for Earth month? What other poems from high school rattle around your brain causing a commotion? Feel free to get in touch and let me know!