The Road

As the start of this week showed, our world is an extremely fragile place. Once something starts to move in a direction, things spiral out of control, effects multiple, people react, stock markets come tumbling down.

I think everything is the same. Politics, war, ecosystems, relationships, order. It can all spiral so easily out of control.

I just finished reading a book that affected me a great deal - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was one of the most powerful, captivating and beautiful works of fiction that I have read. I got through it far quicker than I normally read a book (possibly my long daily commute helped me there).

The Road puts into your mind a very bleak picture of a man and a boy travelling through a destroyed world that has been ravaged by disaster. It is a desperate and cold world; a wasteland that could be the result of any number of actions that we as humankind – and as individuals – are taking.

It is stunningly written - easy to read and incredibly emotive. You feel that world. You are in it. The hopelessness, the desperation, the fear, the numbness. The cold hard reality. But also the sliver of hope that amazingly, we can hold onto no matter how bad it is.

And we must hope that this world does not come to be. In fact, more than that: we must prevent it.

Read The Road and enjoy it as the fantastic book it is. But also think about your responsibility. Are you moving the world down that road, or in another direction? Things need to change, we know that. But who will make those changes? Is it up to "them"? The people in power, with money, with influence? No. It's up to you. You are not them. This is your world. Only you can change it.

Small actions. Big actions. It all matters.