Astrophotography has been one of my favorite hobbies, and the one that lasted the longest into my adulthood. In my youth I have participated in cave studies with a group of friends. I have been an active radio amateur since I was 15 years old. I have practiced photography and macro photography. I’m fond of electronics, building circuits, and experimenting. I have built and launched water rockets, and maybe one day, if I have time, I will make them from solid fuel. I am fond of reading and disseminating science and astronomy. I raise monarch butterflies. And many other things. My time does not give for more.
But astrophotography has always been there, and I continue to practice it and enjoy seeing how others practice it.
But a feeling has come from deep within for some time now. I wonder how much more I can continue to dedicate myself to these hobbies. It is that on the other hand I see all the urgencies that people and humanity have.
I see the pandemic, the climate problems that we are causing with our addiction to fossil fuels, the crises that are developing little by little on the planet, without us paying any attention to them. I look to the future and wonder what will happen to our children and grandchildren. I wonder what world they will live in, or rather, what world will we leave them to live in. What conditions are we creating for his future life?
And I don’t like what I see. I do not like to hear people say: “Let them manage as we already do.”
The meaning of this phrase breaks my heart. Because in addition to showing us that the famous phrase “I want the best for my son” was a lie, it also shows us how much hypocrisy, individualism and selfishness there are in human society.
The pandemic has been horrible. But it has also shown the ugly side of many humans. The lack of feelings such as solidarity, ethics, compassion … and others of the same kind of feelings, have surprised me.
Honestly, I expected a different attitude from the humanity of the 21st century. Those ideas that were seen in science fiction books and movies, of a humanity not only more technologically advanced, but also socially, and humanly more advanced. Those dreams that we had many in the 1980s, when we saw the year 2000 as a bright future full of all kinds of good things. A future where there were not only flying cars, we would reach the Moon and Mars, but you could also talk with any stranger on the street about advanced scientific topics, where we could discuss how to improve world society in extensive forums on the internet. A world where people would be happy, with their needs met, and happily attending to their spiritual whims.
Now, as the 21st century has advanced, we look back to the year 2000 and there is nothing left to do but laugh, or rather, cry.
Not only do we have none of those futuristic fiction novels, but more importantly, we also don’t have that improved, happy society that was looming since the 80s.
Looking at the present, we see people who have lost their hope for a slightly better life in the present itself.
We look to the future, and for those who still want to do so, we see a future that, at best, can be called gray.
What we see in the future is a disaster for our children and grandchildren. A warmed and destroyed planet, decimated of natural resources, with the sea level rising and threatening to displace tens of millions of people in an unprecedented migration crisis. We see drinking water levels dropping and starting to point towards a water crisis. We see temperatures rising to the point where it becomes dangerous to go outside for a walk, even for healthy people. We see many species of animals, insects and other organisms that are part of this planet, disappear miserably.
But worst of all, that mentality that was supposed to be very advanced for the 21st century, is actually as backward as in the last century. Or maybe more than before. People have consciously decided to deny the reality they face, to turn their face to what is happening. They have consciously chosen ignorance over knowledge. They have consciously chosen the lie over the reality.
This is why I wonder if it is really time to do hobbies, or to try to do something about everything that is happening. I think it’s time to stop walking through the clouds, stop watching pink novels, stop watching videos of kittens, or beating around the bush, while our world is sinking.
Sometimes I find myself crying when I see everything that happens. I cry not only because we have lost all our dreams, but also because we do nothing to rescue them. We have lost hope. On this path, we are not going to get anywhere good.