Artist Series #13 The Earth Still Needs Your Help

Dear Friend,

I keep thinking of the children. They don’t deserve this.

The isolation, distance learning, no more classrooms, SATs, junior proms, gathering at Chili’s. Their social fabric has been dismantled overnight. What mental toll will this take? What worse fate for my teenage son than to be confined at home with only his parents for company! I know many others are struggling for sheer survival, but this is a struggle less easy to see. Every day I wake feeling great sadness for all that are suffering right now.

One thing that strikes me is that we are so focused on this crisis that we have stopped thinking about things like the upcoming elections, Brexit, North Korea, Middle East wars, climate change. It’s like these things aren’t happening at all and that time has stopped.

Well, today is Earth Day.

I started this year with a plan to make it the year that I really take action on climate change. My action 2020 plan was to become an activist, to get O+A green and more socially responsible, and to explore how to engage our industry to focus on the climate crisis.  But I too have become single minded. Are we flattening the curve? How do I make a mask? Are we leveling off and when can we go back to work and resume our normal activities? Will there ever be a normal again?

But today on Earth Day I am waking up hopeful. O+A’s Artist Series would like to offer you a playful diversion that also doubles as a reminder of all the things that we need to be doing right away. Our version of the “fortune teller” might truly predict the future if we all start making the changes that we must now. As Greta would say: “I want you to act like your house is on fire, because it is.”

This imperative seems even clearer today. Here’s to a brighter future that our children deserve. Please enjoy and don’t forget to print on RECYCLED paper (download here)! Thanks.

Stay safe and well,

Verda