Mmmm, ice cream. I just had breakfast. Now what sort of frozen milk and sugar delicacy goes well post scrambled eggs with cheese? Open to all suggestions.
I often struggle to think about the future right now, stuck as I am – as we all seem to be – in an endless limbo present of rehashed violence and separation but the two most important questions that come to mind to ask of such a future would seem to be: Are we still here? Do we still love each other?
In the meantime, these lines from the young Pakistani-American activist and writer Ayisha Siddiqa are a balm - they come from her poem “On another panel about climate, they ask me to sell the future and all I’ve got is a love poem”.
…
“What if the future is soft and revolution is so kind that there is no end to us in sight.
Whole cities breathe and bad luck is bested by a promise to the leaves.
To withstand your own end is difficult.
The future frolics about, promised to no one, as is her right.
Rage against injustice makes the voice grow harsher yet.
If the future leaves without us, the silence that will follow will be an unspeakable nothing.
Anne, "Are we still here? Do we still love each other”? Yes, those are the only two questions, aren't they?
Thank you for bringing the brilliant, the illuminated Ayisha Siddiqa into the conversation. “On another panel about climate, they ask me to sell the future and all I’ve got is a love poem.” Balm, yes, that reads like prayer.
‘…as is her right.’ 💚 What a thought-provoking poem, Anne. The title is a poem in itself. Thank you for sharing and introducing me to this new (to me) poet.
Jae, number 5 made me laugh out loud. Your questions are on point. If we are still around, I would hope that all of those happened! That humans found a way to fruitfully evolve.
Hello Pádraig and friends, and Happy USA250 to my fellow countrywomen/men/folks, though I confess I'm still processing what that means in 2026, let alone what it will mean in 2176.
Thank you for this prompt. Here are my five.
1. The Primal Wound. Is it healed? Did we finally find a way to raise children in community, so that no adopted child arrives already carrying the wound of severance? Did we ensure that every child always knows from whence they came, their people, their land, their story? Did we stop treating adoption as a transaction and start treating it as a sacred responsibility to the child's whole self?
2. Marco Cremaschini. Does his music endure? My husband is a prolific composer and pianist whose body of work spans decades of exquisite, deeply human music. I want to know whether some pianist in 2176 found his music and is sight-reading one of his scores with the joy of discovery. I may be biased. I am absolutely biased. But I am also convinced of his brilliance. The larger question. In a world of generated, algorithmic, artificial sound, did we remember to value the music that came from human hands & breath, human love? Did handmade art survive? Does it still move people to tears?
3. Black authors, poets, songwriters. Did they survive the whitewash? In 2176, will someone in the US be able to look up James Baldwin, Lucille Clifton, nikki giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison? Or will the great American experiment in historical erasure have succeeded? I want to know whether the books and songs made it. Whether the poets Pádraig asks about, the ones from the early 2000s still being read, include the Black ones, the Brown ones, the ones who were being banned in 2026. I want to know this with a fury that is, as we discussed a few weeks ago, best turned into something creative rather than something corrosive.
4. The climate. How did we do it? Did we come to our senses? I want the Wikipedia entry to be long and detailed, to include the names of the people who turned the tide, especially the ones nobody listened to in 2026. I want there to be a Wikipedia entry at all, which requires, of course, that there be people. Fingers crossed.
5. Have we realized our interconnectedness? That we are not separate from each other, from the dormouse on Iona, from the two-billion-year-old rock beneath our feet? That what happens to one happens to all? I am cautiously, stubbornly, possibly naively (?) optimistic about this one.
And of course yes, of course, Pádraig. I would absolutely need to know when the aliens arrived, and whether they were disappointed.
Lisa Marie Simmons: To see your words in silence brightens eye and mind, but to hear language sung through the immediacy of your voice deepens into the realm of heart and soul. Much gratitude for transporting us there.
I was fortunate to have seen Padraig speak at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at Notre Dame several weeks ago. Everything he speaks is poetry. It seems as natural to him as breathing. Once a month, there is an event at that site called Art + Insight: Close Looking and Conversation. I wanted to attend it on Thursday, but my wife forbade me going because of powerful winds. We spend part of the time in silence allowing a chosen work of art to speak to us. Then we share what we were blessed to receive. I think something like this is what you are talking about when you speak of collaboration. One of humanity's greatest gifts. And you have such a wonderful medium to do that in music, among other media I am sure.
Just before my wife died 20 months ago, she told me to "go and live". That advice/instruction was priceless, but it's so difficult to do when there's a person-shaped hole in my life that I can find no way to heal, however hard I try. In 150 years I would want to know, above everything else - did I manage to go and live? And if I did, how? I could then share that with others who were themselves grieving and help them on the road to healing.
Bless you, Kathleen, and thanks for this. I'm fortunate in having some really good friends, who have been brilliant even though most of the ones in England are at quite a distance (and my wonderful god-daughter is in Canada). I'm more grateful than I can say that they've all stuck with me. I chatted to a lady last week whose husband died much more recently; she has found that several friends are now keeping their distance, she thinks on the basis that 'she must be OK by now'. If only!
I'm trying my best to 'go and live'. It was brilliant advice but wow, is it hard.
You're right, of course; I wish I disagreed, but I don't. We all hope for healing after bereavement, but it really means adjusting to a different reality that we didn't choose.
Your #1 jolted a memory. Many years ago I worked in the safety side of the nuclear power industry when they were planning to put spent nuclear fuel underground in Nevada. Since it has a half life of thousands of years they were discussing what kind of signage they needed to warn future generations. One of the native Americans said, "Don't worry. My people will tell them."
Thank you for number 3. From a Harry Chapin (American singer/song writer) song.. "there's so many colors of the rainbow, so many colors in the deep blue sea.....let's us everyone"
Once I’ve figured out where I’m going to find breakfast, and why I should wear the purple dress hanging in my wardrobe, I’d probably wonder about the following, in no particular order:
How are my oak and horse chestnut saplings doing? Did they achieve full maturity?
Did sea levels rise as much as predicted?
How did we stop burning fossil fuels? And who found a way to do it? Are there any Porsche 911’s left!
What poets, leaders and heroes are being celebrated? And why?
Me too. It came to me recently, while I don’t leave a genetic lineage behind me, I do leave a beautiful garden. I hope some of it lasts and brings others joy.
I've just finished reading By Any Other Name. Jodi Picoult researches and rewrites history 400 years buried. In it she tell s a story of a small bird that gets trapped in the palace. Again and again it strikes the same window trying to break free until it dies of exhaustion. Not long after that the pane of glass breaks and when replaced breaks again and again, something distorted now in the frame that means glass cannot hold there. The window is left open.
When I dream about the future I imagine nature taking back all we've made ugly, climbing, crumbling. Fissuring cracks, releasing, regenerating
This makes me think of driving to a gig Marco and I held during lockdown. It is in the Dolomites, and I live on Lake Garda, so it takes about 2 hours to get there. The place we performed at, still do, actually, was deemed essential by the Italian government as it is a spa, and for “health reasons,” they were allowed to operate, and we received a special pass to travel. How fair that designation was, I cannot say, but I digress. My point is, it was remarkable how nature took over. We never passed another car, and there was an absolute animal kingdom party all along the road. Foxes, deer, marmots, squirrels, rabbits. It was extraordinary. We are lucky now that things have reverted if we spot a fox...
Maybe, coyote and fox will co-direct human learning
Maybe, i will have continued my daily walks in our rural neighborhood, still amazed by Nature’s abundance, along forest paths long having replaced paved roads no longer useful, no cars, no trucks, no gas fueled engines
Maybe, we humans, forced to our ever growing more humble knees, are gazing gratefully on all foods and plant medicines offered by our non-human friends
Maybe, the kindness of Beauty has opened our human hearts/minds/eyes to a mutually shared existence, the joyous giving and receiving of life
Maybe, greed has fallen from our language, no longer an operative experience, this illness of the soul finally cured and extinct
Maybe, we humans have learned that this gift of life is realized most fully in giving and sharing
Upon waking in 2176, I would love to find out:
* What was it that got people to stop burning fossil fuels and instead rely upon the sun and wind for power?
* How did people decide to make boundaries on artificial intelligence, to be able to use it for the good and still rein it in?
* How are people researching the past, when people didn’t have nearly as much time to make poetry and art?
* Who was the last trillionaire?
* Where can I find some ice cream?
I’m with you. Your five? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and immediately needed, yes, please!
Mmmm, ice cream. I just had breakfast. Now what sort of frozen milk and sugar delicacy goes well post scrambled eggs with cheese? Open to all suggestions.
Ya need a fruit, so would a raspberry sherbert would do it?
who...who will be the last trillionaire!!!!! I hope the ice cream queen is not the last one :)
I often struggle to think about the future right now, stuck as I am – as we all seem to be – in an endless limbo present of rehashed violence and separation but the two most important questions that come to mind to ask of such a future would seem to be: Are we still here? Do we still love each other?
In the meantime, these lines from the young Pakistani-American activist and writer Ayisha Siddiqa are a balm - they come from her poem “On another panel about climate, they ask me to sell the future and all I’ve got is a love poem”.
…
“What if the future is soft and revolution is so kind that there is no end to us in sight.
Whole cities breathe and bad luck is bested by a promise to the leaves.
To withstand your own end is difficult.
The future frolics about, promised to no one, as is her right.
Rage against injustice makes the voice grow harsher yet.
If the future leaves without us, the silence that will follow will be an unspeakable nothing.
What if we convince her to stay?
How rare and beautiful it is that we exist.
What if we stun existence one more time?...”
Anne, "Are we still here? Do we still love each other”? Yes, those are the only two questions, aren't they?
Thank you for bringing the brilliant, the illuminated Ayisha Siddiqa into the conversation. “On another panel about climate, they ask me to sell the future and all I’ve got is a love poem.” Balm, yes, that reads like prayer.
Glad you liked Ayisha's poem, Lisa Marie!
‘…as is her right.’ 💚 What a thought-provoking poem, Anne. The title is a poem in itself. Thank you for sharing and introducing me to this new (to me) poet.
Yes, a whole poem in that title alright, Orna! She's new to me too...
Did you write this beauty?
I wish, Jayne! No, it's a young writer Ayisha Siddiqa...
1. How did food become so readily available to everybody?
2. How was the addiction epidemic solved?
3. What was the evolution of shelter?
4. How did we achieve world peace?
5. When will the Epstein files be released?
Jae, number 5 made me laugh out loud. Your questions are on point. If we are still around, I would hope that all of those happened! That humans found a way to fruitfully evolve.
Please hear the sarcasm in this comment....who is Epstein :) :(
1. YES! And 5. 😂
Haha! I loved 5, but most especially 2 ❤️
Hello Pádraig and friends, and Happy USA250 to my fellow countrywomen/men/folks, though I confess I'm still processing what that means in 2026, let alone what it will mean in 2176.
Thank you for this prompt. Here are my five.
1. The Primal Wound. Is it healed? Did we finally find a way to raise children in community, so that no adopted child arrives already carrying the wound of severance? Did we ensure that every child always knows from whence they came, their people, their land, their story? Did we stop treating adoption as a transaction and start treating it as a sacred responsibility to the child's whole self?
2. Marco Cremaschini. Does his music endure? My husband is a prolific composer and pianist whose body of work spans decades of exquisite, deeply human music. I want to know whether some pianist in 2176 found his music and is sight-reading one of his scores with the joy of discovery. I may be biased. I am absolutely biased. But I am also convinced of his brilliance. The larger question. In a world of generated, algorithmic, artificial sound, did we remember to value the music that came from human hands & breath, human love? Did handmade art survive? Does it still move people to tears?
3. Black authors, poets, songwriters. Did they survive the whitewash? In 2176, will someone in the US be able to look up James Baldwin, Lucille Clifton, nikki giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison? Or will the great American experiment in historical erasure have succeeded? I want to know whether the books and songs made it. Whether the poets Pádraig asks about, the ones from the early 2000s still being read, include the Black ones, the Brown ones, the ones who were being banned in 2026. I want to know this with a fury that is, as we discussed a few weeks ago, best turned into something creative rather than something corrosive.
4. The climate. How did we do it? Did we come to our senses? I want the Wikipedia entry to be long and detailed, to include the names of the people who turned the tide, especially the ones nobody listened to in 2026. I want there to be a Wikipedia entry at all, which requires, of course, that there be people. Fingers crossed.
5. Have we realized our interconnectedness? That we are not separate from each other, from the dormouse on Iona, from the two-billion-year-old rock beneath our feet? That what happens to one happens to all? I am cautiously, stubbornly, possibly naively (?) optimistic about this one.
And of course yes, of course, Pádraig. I would absolutely need to know when the aliens arrived, and whether they were disappointed.
Lisa Marie Simmons: To see your words in silence brightens eye and mind, but to hear language sung through the immediacy of your voice deepens into the realm of heart and soul. Much gratitude for transporting us there.
Michael, what a deeply kind message. Thank you!
You and your husband surround yourselves with genuinely gifted people, especially each other! Talents are magnified in their sharing.
I agree Michael , talents are magnified. What a wonderful way of considering collaboration.
I was fortunate to have seen Padraig speak at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at Notre Dame several weeks ago. Everything he speaks is poetry. It seems as natural to him as breathing. Once a month, there is an event at that site called Art + Insight: Close Looking and Conversation. I wanted to attend it on Thursday, but my wife forbade me going because of powerful winds. We spend part of the time in silence allowing a chosen work of art to speak to us. Then we share what we were blessed to receive. I think something like this is what you are talking about when you speak of collaboration. One of humanity's greatest gifts. And you have such a wonderful medium to do that in music, among other media I am sure.
That sounds extraordinary, what an experience it must have been! I hope to have the honor of being in a room with him one day.
Thank you! Yes, thank you Lisa.
Just before my wife died 20 months ago, she told me to "go and live". That advice/instruction was priceless, but it's so difficult to do when there's a person-shaped hole in my life that I can find no way to heal, however hard I try. In 150 years I would want to know, above everything else - did I manage to go and live? And if I did, how? I could then share that with others who were themselves grieving and help them on the road to healing.
David, I'm sad to read of your wife's death and I can feel the depths of your grief.
All I know of this path is from the loss of my parents, my brother and dearest friend.
The journey is long but you will find pilgrims on the same path and a few angels too. We hold the light for each other.
Holding the light for you,
Kathleen
Bless you, Kathleen, and thanks for this. I'm fortunate in having some really good friends, who have been brilliant even though most of the ones in England are at quite a distance (and my wonderful god-daughter is in Canada). I'm more grateful than I can say that they've all stuck with me. I chatted to a lady last week whose husband died much more recently; she has found that several friends are now keeping their distance, she thinks on the basis that 'she must be OK by now'. If only!
I'm trying my best to 'go and live'. It was brilliant advice but wow, is it hard.
Dave
Ah! So beautifully said, Kathleen.
Healing is a complicated word. We don’t so much heal the pain as we learn to live with the pain.
You're right, of course; I wish I disagreed, but I don't. We all hope for healing after bereavement, but it really means adjusting to a different reality that we didn't choose.
1. How are children being educated? And is it a liberal education?
2. Are we spending time enjoying the outdoors?
3. Have we learned to turn off our ______.
4. Is the arc of the moral universe bending towards justice?
5. How are we cultivating friendships?
4. Yes! The curve may be wide, but it IS bending, I am sure.
There are all things I would be contemplating as well, Michael. Number 4, especially.
1. Have any of the ancient languages survived? How much of the deep past has been carried in seeds and is now taking root?
2. What finally guided humans back toward metabolic rituals for grief?
3. Was it these or other rituals that broke the spell of whiteness?
4. How many cultures are there? Which ones teach wisely how to balance belonging with difference?
5. Has war transformed into impassioned, theatrical performances like rap battles and breakdancing?
Jo,
Your #1 jolted a memory. Many years ago I worked in the safety side of the nuclear power industry when they were planning to put spent nuclear fuel underground in Nevada. Since it has a half life of thousands of years they were discussing what kind of signage they needed to warn future generations. One of the native Americans said, "Don't worry. My people will tell them."
Signs decay, or get knocked over; a people's memories last. All I have to do is to be willing to listen ...
Ohhh this gave me chills, thank you for sharing this with me.
Thank you for number 3. From a Harry Chapin (American singer/song writer) song.. "there's so many colors of the rainbow, so many colors in the deep blue sea.....let's us everyone"
Remarkable. All of these, Jo. Number 5 - something like Capoeira, but with the urgent need for it removed!
Yes, exactly!!
Oh! I love 3!
1. How did KFC outlast all fast food joints?
2. When did the machine that did all our ironing become invented?
3. Why is everyone beige?
4. When was the Ganges cleaned and purified?
5. When did Hollywood make its last film, and begin doing exclusive plays with their celebrity actors?
Laughing, in the movie "Demolish Man" Taco Bell is the survivor.
Heh heh!
Thank you, Pádraig, for this prompt. I am hoping I will be on Iona next summer, visiting the musician in residence, who is / was a colleague.
1. How did the world peace pact come about?
2. What did it take for the nations to organize for taking in refugees from island nations (that no longer exist).
3. How did nations move from capitalism to caring for all ? (Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est)
4. How did NASA shift from space exploration to working on solving societal global problem?
5. How did the global faith movement evolve to respect all faith traditions, eliminating competition / zero sum thinking from faith journeys?
I am hopeful-
In gratitude
Appreciative of your hopefulness. Thanks, Veronica!
Once I’ve figured out where I’m going to find breakfast, and why I should wear the purple dress hanging in my wardrobe, I’d probably wonder about the following, in no particular order:
How are my oak and horse chestnut saplings doing? Did they achieve full maturity?
Did sea levels rise as much as predicted?
How did we stop burning fossil fuels? And who found a way to do it? Are there any Porsche 911’s left!
What poets, leaders and heroes are being celebrated? And why?
Did Ireland ever win a World Cup at rugby?
Yes, Tommy, I’d want to know how all the trees I planted were doing!
Me too. It came to me recently, while I don’t leave a genetic lineage behind me, I do leave a beautiful garden. I hope some of it lasts and brings others joy.
Oh yes and did Mayo mens team ever win an All-Ireland final again?
Fun prompt. Yet another thing-I'll-borrow-from-Padraig for use in group gatherings. You make me so interesting, Padraig. :)
Among many things, I'd want to know:
-Are there still humans? Do any live on Mars?
-Do I have great-great-great...grandchildren? Where are they and what are they doing? I'll want to know them...even the ones on Mars.
-By what means do they now PAY for things? Brain chips? (I think, therefore I pay.). Does paper currency even exist? How about on Mars?
-Where can I find the oldest living trees? I'll badly want to walk among them.
-What have been the great acts of compassion in these 150 years? Who or what brought them to pass? (My money--in cash--is on the elephants.)
The elephants - yes, Lyn!!
(I think, therefore I pay.) So funny.
“By what means do they now PAY for things? Brain chips? (I think, therefore I pay.).” This reminds me of Barbara Kruger’s “I shop, therefore I am”
I've just finished reading By Any Other Name. Jodi Picoult researches and rewrites history 400 years buried. In it she tell s a story of a small bird that gets trapped in the palace. Again and again it strikes the same window trying to break free until it dies of exhaustion. Not long after that the pane of glass breaks and when replaced breaks again and again, something distorted now in the frame that means glass cannot hold there. The window is left open.
When I dream about the future I imagine nature taking back all we've made ugly, climbing, crumbling. Fissuring cracks, releasing, regenerating
This makes me think of driving to a gig Marco and I held during lockdown. It is in the Dolomites, and I live on Lake Garda, so it takes about 2 hours to get there. The place we performed at, still do, actually, was deemed essential by the Italian government as it is a spa, and for “health reasons,” they were allowed to operate, and we received a special pass to travel. How fair that designation was, I cannot say, but I digress. My point is, it was remarkable how nature took over. We never passed another car, and there was an absolute animal kingdom party all along the road. Foxes, deer, marmots, squirrels, rabbits. It was extraordinary. We are lucky now that things have reverted if we spot a fox...
This is such a vision, thank you, Lisa Marie.
How did humankind figure out how to feed everyone on the planet healthy, fresh food?
How did humans create a peaceful world and agree that war would be no more?.
When did Americans agree that driving huge gas guzzling cars didn’t make sense?
And…that using the sun for energy for many purposes made perfect sense.
I think perhaps...…..
1. Find out who looked after me while I was sleeping.
2. Learn what happened to those I care about.
3. Can I still swim in the ocean?.
4. Listen to the music.
5. Are there still animals? (cats)
1. Of course!! That is lovely
Amaze amaze
Maybe, coyote and fox will co-direct human learning
Maybe, i will have continued my daily walks in our rural neighborhood, still amazed by Nature’s abundance, along forest paths long having replaced paved roads no longer useful, no cars, no trucks, no gas fueled engines
Maybe, we humans, forced to our ever growing more humble knees, are gazing gratefully on all foods and plant medicines offered by our non-human friends
Maybe, the kindness of Beauty has opened our human hearts/minds/eyes to a mutually shared existence, the joyous giving and receiving of life
Maybe, greed has fallen from our language, no longer an operative experience, this illness of the soul finally cured and extinct
Maybe, we humans have learned that this gift of life is realized most fully in giving and sharing
Maybe, why not?🏮
Yes! David, if we can imagine it, why could it not be?
Five questions (plus a bonus follow up):
1. What are the questions philosophers has been asking?
2. Are people still eating pizza?
3. Why are boy bands still a thing? (And what does that say about art and kitsch?)
4. How have building techniques evolved?
5. Is classical music still classical?