Prayers against Extinction
A storm is churning toward the North Carolina coast and Ocean Isle Beach in particular where I have gone every summer since I was in the 11th grade, and the hurricane is threatening to tear it to pieces. And then I open my emails to read an article about male sperm decreasing in fertility by 50% since 1973 and warning us that the entire human race is on the path to extinction, and now I’m so sad I can’t lift my head.
I’m weeping at the nail salon because the man doing my nails is kind, and he and his are going extent. On the way home, I almost swerve into the Waffle House, and then I know I’m falling into despair because the Waffle House calls to me to cheer me up when hope blackens. I need a donut and coffee or at least some coffee if I can’t take the time to wander the aisles of a secondhand store, which soothes my tattered soul almost as much as the Waffle House.
Back home, I’m weeping on the phone with the woman who was to board Evangeline had we made it to our vacation this week, our conversation filling me with fear for her 2 horses and many cats and rescue dogs and “three dogs of my own.” Unable to evacuate, she will ride out the storm in her cement building and pray for the roof. Unless, as the warnings grow more dire, she changes her mind and some kind soul creates a caravan for the living things she has in her care.
I tell my husband about the sperm destabilization, and he asks, “Why isn’t anyone talking about this?” and later I ask him to stop watching the news because there is nothing we can do about the coming destruction or protect my daddy’s beloved state from a predicted “Mike Tyson punch,” and we cannot will away the inland path that may arc upwards to Raleigh where my sister waits with her candles and water or southwards to Charlotte where my sister protects my mother in the retirement home, and, lord, I can’t even write this without tearing up.
So maybe the winds will stop spinning entirely, just give it up, decide we don’t need a wall of water spreading like a plague 50 miles into the Tarheel state, and the bastard storm will go home, reverse its winds and back its rotten self out to sea, satisfied with the electrifying fear it has created and not need to deliver the final blow. And maybe the epidemiologists are wrong about plastics and chemicals genetically altering the maleness of the human race to the point of extinction and whatever has caused our fertility worldwide to dramatically decrease will resolve, and I can quit acting so dramatic, my sorrow bleeding onto the page.
Maybe, in the long run, all will be well. Well today, well tomorrow, well next week. Well forever and ever, amen.
Janet Sever
i have a lot of friends on the coast, and I’m worried for them. I’m worried for the Banker ponies on Corolla, and the ponies further north at Chincoteague. And I’m so sad for this news I saw today:https://people.com/pets/blue-parrot-spixs-macaw-extinct-rio-movie/
And an article I read about the loss of bees. Sad and helpless in the face of nature…. and what mankind has done to nature.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I had not thought about the ponies, Janet. This is so, so hard. They waited 15 years to say with confidence the macaws are gone. It is just devastating. Thank you for sharing my sorrow.
Marsha Van Hecke
I am weeping with you
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Oh, Marsha. We keep talking about Caitlin…. Sending all our love to y’all.
Donna Weidner
Had to ride out Wilma in a closet with the kids years ago. Mother Nature is a powerful, scarey dame sometimes. Prayers for all to be safe and incur the least damage possible. As for the sperm count, from a glass half full perspective, a slow down in population growth doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The planet’s resources won’t last forever with the present burn rate. What are we leaving our grand-children? Oh, enough doom and gloom. You (and yours) be well and safe Ellen <3
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Me, too. After my third hurricane, I said no more. I had to stick to my guns when the 4th opportunity for martyrdom rolled around. I am no longer a hurricane gal. And I like your perspective on population growth. The article was pretty scary, but I’m gonna be more optimistic now. 🙂
Derrick Knight
May there not be too much damage
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you—I’m right there with you.
Marcee Silver
Hi! I’m waiting with candles and water and my bunny! The bunny and i are in this together 🙂
I love your heart, Ellen.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
You and the bunny are my heroes. <3
Joanne Corey
Sending out prayers and hope for all concerned. These are scary times on nearly every front and the most we can do is chip away each day in whatever way is in our own power to contribute, whether that is direct caretaking of family, friends, and community, supporting organizations and agencies that assist those in need, engaging in prayer, meditation, and sympathetic listening, conserving energy and working toward sustainable power sources, or whatever opportunity presents itself to us in our daily lives. Loving support of each other and of what Pope Francis calls “our common home” is what will get us through.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you for these calm, wise words, Joanne. What a wonderful list you’ve made. It is, in itself, a loving support. <3