The Only Lasting Truth is Change

By no means has our world deteriorated to the point of Parable of the Sower, but as I pointed out in my last post Octavia Butler's world bears some striking similarities. Lauren's verses about change and how it is our responsibility to shape our fate definitely apply to our experiences in the past year. 

Ever since I became old enough to read dystopian books, I've had recurring dreams and thoughts right before falling asleep about how our world as we know it could suddenly end. I considered them nightmares--I believed the sun would rise upon the same reality for my entire lifespan. Clearly that was a naive notion. Lauren is almost my age (slightly younger) and her development of Earthseed is basically a sophisticated coming-of-age that outshines any half-baked thoughts I have had, at any rate. 

Or perhaps Lauren's ideas are naive in their own way. She believes that change can and needs to happen, as soon as possible. Everything that I know about social and political dynamics tells me that is almost impossible. We as a species are falling into the same traps as the gated community (I guess that's why this book is a parable, isn't it?). We experience the SAME problems as in the book: climate change, the wealth gap, and infectious diseases (obviously), to name a few. And we have more time than the people in the book, but it seems like nothing is happening. 

Butler is gearing up for a massive and well-written cautionary tale, but is anyone listening? It's already been 28 years since the book was published. Maybe the COVID-19 pandemic will jolt everyone into acting faster. Maybe humankind's eternal struggle will be trying to deal with the thing we hate most: change.

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