Writing the Book You're Meant to Write

Bringing love and family into the climate change crisis

“The second I started writing, I felt like I was doing the thing I should be doing … this is what I am meant to do.” —Auden Schendler, author of Terrible Beauty

Preview: Emerging Form Episode 131 with Auden Schendler

“We have failed,” says author Auden Schendler, speaking of modern sustainability. And the same is true, he says, of the books about climate change. After reading “the same, boring, technical” books, he knew he wanted—he needed—to write something different. And Terrible Beauty was born. Part memoir, the book speaks to parenting and finding beauty. But the book is also a path forward, outlining Schendler’s vision for the kind of big scale change necessary to make a real difference. In this episode, he speaks about “the difference between sexy work and real work,” why personal stories are important, and the dangers of ego in storytelling.

Auden Schendler has spent almost thirty years working on sustainability and climate change in the corporate world, focusing on big scale change that rejects tokenism. Currently Senior Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen One, he has been a town councilman, a Colorado Air Quality Control Commissioner, and an ambulance medic. He’s the author of Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Sustainability Revolution, which climatologist James Hansen called “an antidote to greenwash,” and new this year, Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering our Soul, which historian Naomi Oreskes called “compelling and weirdly fun.”

---

What We’re Reading and Listening to:

Rosemerry:

• I so wish that this two-year-old video of Colorado’s poet laureate Andrea Gibson reciting a poem about climate change (and the way “science has been reframed as leftist propaganda”) felt like old news. But here it is, relevant as ever.

• I can’t stop laughing about this Saturday Night Live skit portraying “The Couple You Can’t Believe Are Together.” I keep quoting it relentlessly and making everyone watch it. Why? In part, because I really can’t believe this couple. And in part because I want to. I am obsessed with the idea that someone might cheer for a poem (and a poet) in this way.

Christie:

• I was so tickled to discover Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous (thanks for the recommendation Lila!) I listened to the audiobook and it was a delight! It’s the story of a real-life writer going through multiple losses in her personal life and the wonderfully funny and wise fake persona she created on social media and how that persona helped her rebuild a sense of connection. The name Duchess Goldblatt comes from a friend’s first pet and his mother’s maiden name. Also, Lyle Lovett has a leading part, and he voices his lines in the audiobook. I will never be convinced that the voice of Duchess Goldblatt in the audiobook is not Holiday Mathis and many of Duchess’s witty posts are reminiscent of Holiday’s daily words of advice.

• At my last book club, Animal Farm came up in our discussion, and I decided to pick it up. I hadn’t read it since high school, and it’s (terrifyingly) apt for our current moment. Although it’s a commentary on Stalinism, the gaslighting and doublespeak George Orwell’s novel critiques is happening around us now. It’s a demonstration of how power corrupts and political promises fall flat.

---

How Can We Not Try to Save It?

Only this world—
not some unknown chance
of life somewhere else,
only this here, this life,
this improbable chance
to be steward of meadow
and desert, mountain and cliff,
this chance to inhabit this
acre, this continent, this planet,
to know this frozen pond,
this slender stream, this dried grass,
this herd of mule deer, this darkness
that comes when our planet spins,
this light that arrives
on darkness’s edge.
Only this chance to sing
of this world, this disappearing
world, this world of emergence,
this world with its stars
and its bones, its prickles
and petals, its sweetness
and ache, this world
with its hopelessness
and, oh dare I say it,
its hope.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

---

A Note About Paid Subscriptions:

First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.

This week, we talk to Auden about why a good story is gold, how to trust your own judgment about if something is crappy or good, and the importance of humility. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com, or by clicking the button below. Thank you!

---

Two Questions:

(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)

1. What MUST you write about right now?

2. What role do your creative endeavors play in finding or maintaining hope for the world?

Emerging Form is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.