How We Live Now: Jay Griffiths on the ecology of connection
Hello,
In between my fortnightly musings, I’ll be writing to let you know about new episodes of my podcast, How We Live Now.
Jay Griffiths’ writing has long explored the link between land, culture and our potential for connection, but her father’s death during lockdown made this more vital than ever. Denied the comfort or closure of a funeral, Jay had to find other ways to connect, mourn and memorialise, and in this gentle, wide-ranging conversation she and Katherine talk about imaginary journeys, ritual and delving into a sense of place.
Behind all of Jay’s work is an ecological urgency, and a sense of grief for the life that we seem to be losing. Here, it’s expressed through the idea of homelessness, both literal and metaphorical. But she also introduces us to the character of Nemesis, offering us a model for justice that might just see us through the next decades.
Links from the episode:
Jay's website
Jay's books
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How We Live Now is recorded using RiversideFM and hosted by Acast.
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From the transcript
Katherine May: It's really important. This is a great moment to bring in Nemesis because it feels like she's a little bit in action today. Tell us about, maybe, I don't know, or is that hopeful? Tell us about Nemesis. Who is she and why is she really important?
Jay Griffiths: Okay, here we are. The thing with Nemesis is that people always think that she's the goddess of vengeance, that she wants retribution, that she's cruel, that she's an enemy. And in fact, she's incredibly important in the widest sense of justice. She's the goddess of Greek myth whose role is to give people what they are due. This is about justice, it's about balance. So she looks at people's actions and effects on others. And then she assesses the cost of it, and also where humans display an arrogance towards the gods, Nemesis steps in. She's often pictured as a beautiful woman with bold white wings. But what she ensured is that people had a balance of happiness and sadness, an equal measure of good luck and bad. It's interesting that one of the things that's so important about her that she sets limits. And this is an age which detests limits as the libertarian Tories have so appallingly demonstrated, that they think that the natural world will limitlessly give the ridiculous idea of endless financial growth, without limit. The thing about Nemesis is she said, "There are limits." When it comes to something like climate change and the ecological emergency is that this is a lesson of metaphysics and lesson of ethics taught in physics very directly. We kill the insects, we kill ourselves. We kill the bees, there is -
Katherine May: Everything has a knock on effect.
Jay Griffiths: Everything has a knock on effect. So we need her. We need this goddess of balance and limits and justice. So when I've @tled the book Nemesis My Friend, that's why.
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Really urgently important viewpoint thanks. We need ecological thinking and an appreciation of interdependence - biologically and culturally. - desperately. The connection to Greek mythology is great - also connects with mythology from virtually all healthy and intact cultures. Culture and biology select for healthy continued life and evolution - or do not.