Sha LaBare

11 June 2015
1113 words
1
Seeking Friends for the End of the World
All learning is deferred. We never know what weve learned until later, often days, weeks,
months, even indeed, usually years later. Back when I was an undergraduate working on my senior
thesis, my thesis advisor taught me something that it seems, however, I only just actually learned. After
listening to me go on at length about all the groundwork I would lay before diving into the main
argument, he held up his hand and said in his thick French accent: Wait, you are American, no? Why
serve so many courses, so many appetizers? Why not go straight to the main course, like a real
American does? Of course, I didnt take his advice then, nor for many years after, but when I
designed this course, it finally became clear to me. This is what he meant. THIS IS THE MAIN
COURSE, no pun intended. All my work on science fiction, ecology, animal studies, and feminist
science studies was leading up to this main course: Seeking Friends for the End of the World. To cut
to the chase, to skip the appetizers, to deal with the bottom line: how are you, am I, are we going to
behave courageously in the face of the climate change and the end of the world as we know it? Myself,
Ive come up with three ways, which Ive jotted on stickies (of course!) and will break down for you
now: ESCAPE FROM ESCAPE, LOVE THE ONES YOURE WITH, and SEEK PROFESSIONAL
HELP.
For some years now, confronted with the severity of climate change and the imminent zombie
apocalypse also known as the collapse of our way of life Ive denied real responsibility by saying
something like this: Well, Im not gonna see the worst of it. Ive lived so unhealthy, abused myself so
much, that Ill be dead before any of this happens. Its my students Im worried about, and my little
boy. Yall will have to actually live through this, not me! This is, of course, a form of denialism, of
escapism. Fact is, just like you, Im living through it now, because I know its happening, and its a cop
out to lose myself in self-abuse, in smoking too much, drinking too much, watching too much TV,
reading too much science fiction, and basically letting my body go to pot. So, the first thing I will do to
behave courageously in the face of climate change is ESCAPE FROM ESCAPE, a slogan meant to
recall the post-apocalyptic films by cult horror and sf film director John Carpenter, Escape from New
York and Escape from L.A. It's past time for me to embrace life, to plan on living through this
particular apocalypse, to make it at least as far as I can. Specifically, I quit smoking just before our
last class, over 48 hours ago now. I also decided to quit drinking so much, because for me the two go
together. As I know from past experiences of quitting cigarettes in particular - its amazing how,
when you stop poisoning yourself, your entire outlook changes! The future is no longer covered in
coughing, puking, cancerous bile, but shines instead with hope and possibility. ESCAPE FROM
ESCAPE means inhabiting my body, and getting healthy with yoga, exercise, and an ergonomic work
space. Indeed, only once Ive taking on escaping from escape can I embrace the next stage: LOVE
THE ONES YOURE WITH.
This slogan refers, of course, to the well-known 70s single by Stephen Stills: if you cant be
with the one you love, honey, love the one youre with. Somehow, growing up during the Cold War
under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation, I came to love the futures, futures marked, however
and always, by a sense of imminent loss. This is why I wanted to become an sf writer, and why I
became an sf scholar, and why, faced with ecocide, mass extinction, and climate change Ive chosen to
focus all my energies on them. But I dont live in the futures. Like you, I live now. And now. And
now. LOVE THE ONES YOU'RE WITH. I cant be with the ones I love those shiny alternatives,
posthuman pleasures, livable worlds honey, so Ill love the ones Im with. And boy are they lovable!:

Sha LaBare
11 June 2015
1113 words
2
my beautiful partner, amazing child, cat and kittens, my river valley, awesome view, comfy apartment,
my stickies and the walls I put them on, and the many great friends Ive made on this planet. Loving
the ones Im with means giving more, exploring more, wanting more, and loving more. Having
escaped from escape I can now do this and, last but not least, SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
If you have any of these symptoms, as the saying goes, SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP. I
have the symptoms. For some time Ive been suffering from what Paul Robbins and Sarah Moore call
ecological anxiety disorder1. But the help I seek is not available from mental health professionals. I
dont want happy pills to keep me functioning as a cog in this system; Ive chosen to escape from
escape, remember? No, the help I need can only come from others who seek, like me, to know about
the end of the world, who understand that we must change, and change the world, from people who are
working out ways to do exactly that. When I seek professional help, Ill turn to conferences on the
Anthropocene, symposiums on climate change, articles and books on ecology, on other critters, on
activism, and on other ways of life. Ill hunt high and low for friends, teachers, and students, for
humans like yourselves, but Ill also seek to learn from lumber, loam, from loss and love. Who, indeed,
can offer more professional help about climate change than a species on the brink of extinction, than a
tree running north at thirty klicks a year? Ill read widely and assiduously, and publish, and join in the
conversation. Having escaped from escape and taken on loving the ones Im with, Ill take joy in the
work and play of imagining and building a new world with my friends for the end of the world. I'll
SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
As Martin Luther King, Jr once put it, even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to
pieces, Id still plant my apple tree. Ive been sitting on a whole lot of seeds, like some stingy,
dragonish Johnny Appleseed. Its past time for the main course: seeking friends for the end of the
world, seasoned with these main ingredients: ESCAPE FROM ESCAPE, LOVE THE ONES YOURE
WITH, and SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP. This, my friends, is how Im going to behave
courageously in the face of climate change. How about you?

Robbins, Paul & Sarah A. Moore. Ecological anxiety disorder: diagnosing the politics of the Anthropocene.
Cultural Geographies 20:1 (2012). 3-19.