One student envisions a watch that tells you when you’re polluting – a sort of eco-nanny on your wrist. 

Another suggests that teachers might show up in classrooms, not in person, but as holograms. 

There’s talk of colonies on Mars, and people commuting in flying cars. 

These are among the ideas to emerge from the fertile imaginations of fifth graders across the country thinking about what the world will – or should – look like in 20 years. As the calendar flips to a new year, the Monitor, in collaboration with The Hechinger Report – a nonprofit education news site – had reporters sit down with students in four cities to give us their predictions of and aspirations for the future. 

At a time of unusual vitriol in society among grown-ups – on abortion, school curricula, election counts, you name it – we wanted to plumb the minds of youth who are becoming aware of the world but still retain an innocence. 

What we found is that they harbor plenty of concerns about tomorrow, sure, but they also exude an innate optimism, a sense of delight and possibility. Their visions represent a journey into cybersecurity and space travel, racism and robots. 

As you read through their comments, consider what you think will be happening in 2042 and then ask yourself: Am I smarter than a fifth grader?

A kinder, cleaner world(s)

Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report

One idea, for when we colonize Mars, is that all of humanity could spend a few years on the Red Planet to let Earth “rest.” “And then when we come back, we’ll try better to not pollute as much.” – Chandler Stark

HILLSBORO, ORE. – One idea, for when we colonize Mars, is that all of humanity could spend a few years on the Red Planet to let Earth “rest.”

“And then when we come back, we’ll try better to not pollute as much,” says Chandler Stark, a fifth grader at Paul L. Patterson Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Chandler estimates it will take two to five years for Earth to recover from what we’ve done to it, at which point we can all return. The idea was met with nods by three of Chandler’s classmates as they sat discussing the future in the principal’s office of their 400-student elementary school, a red-brick structure in a suburb of Portland. Part tech hub, part old farming town, Hillsboro is an increasingly diverse community. 

Since Mars is not yet ready for human habitation, these kids agreed that cleaning up our current planet was a top concern.

“The time to fix it is now,” says Caden Sorensen. “It’s not going to fix itself. And if we do end up colonizing Mars, don’t ruin Mars, too.”

But while the technology necessary to move to Mars seems likely to be a net positive, these children aren’t interested in every new advancement.

Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report

“The time to fix [Earth] is now. It’s not going to fix itself. And if we do end up colonizing Mars, don’t ruin Mars, too.” – Caden Sorensen

Technology “can bring really amazing good things, but those things could bring some other bad things,” Caden says, noting that he would warn his future children about the downsides.

Noelani Velasco Polley agrees. She hopes to one day own an iPhone 21, “with 21 cameras on it,” but for now she’s OK not having a phone at all. Her moms have warned her that phones can be hacked, so she’ll tell her future kids they have to wait, too. Noelani isn’t the only one worried about cybersecurity.

“I’m really concerned that there’s going to be more electronics ... that people can hack, so more identity theft,” says Fatima Abdi, who prefers to be called Fati. She also worries about artificial intelligence. (All four students say they think humanoid robots are “creepy.”) Fati worries racism will get worse, and thinks steps should be taken, short of going to Mars, to save the environment. 

“I really hope electric cars become popularized,” she says. 

“Yeah, I was going to say that,” Chandler chimes in. “I just hope we have more alternatives for things that pollute, and just have more ways of doing things without polluting the ocean and sky.” 

Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report

“I think there can be more equality in the world if we just work hard for it.” – Fatima Abdi, a fifth grade student at Paul L. Patterson Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon

Chandler hopes to one day compose music for TV shows and video games. Fati plans to be a business owner – she already has an Instagram shop where she sells jewelry. Caden is currently aiming to be a lawyer, but figures he’ll probably change his mind. And Noelani wants to be a scientist or an engineer.

“I think there won’t be that many jobs in fast-food places” in the future, she says. “I think they’re going to be like, bigger jobs, and people are going to want to be in jobs where they can get more money, because in the future everything is going to be more expensive.”

Many jobs, the children predict, will be replaced by robots. 

“I think there’s probably going to be like, no more jobs at factories and stuff, because robots can just do that,” Chandler says. 

“Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of robots,” Noelani agrees.

Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report

“Our generation is the future, and if we are all kind and loving to others, I think it could change the world.” – Noelani Velasco Polley

Ultimately, though, they say the power to create the future rests in human hands.

“I think there can be more equality in the world if we just work hard for it,” Fati says. As an example, she points to the problem of homelessness vexing nearby Portland. If we “try to actually solve the problem, that could be done, and they could start a new life.” 

Noelani has already tried to address the issue locally. At her suggestion, she and her mother recently brought a pizza and a gallon of water to a person they’d noticed living near a highway overpass. He didn’t want them, but they found another person staying nearby who did.

“Our generation is the future,” Noelani says, “and if we are all kind and loving to others, I think it could change the world.” - Lillian Mongeau, The Hechinger Report 

“Let’s hope the pandemic is over”

WOODBRIDGE, VA. – In 25 years, schools could be multiple stories, connected by elevators and moving walkways. Scientists will have made greater strides in exploring the uncharted ocean depths and the edges of the galaxy. Humans may even have settlements on other planets. 

A group of six fifth-graders at Belmont Elementary School in Woodbridge, Virginia, about 25 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, hopes for a flashy world much different from their suburban town – as long as human progress is kinder to the environment. 

“Hopefully we can use more renewable resources. Like solar power, windmills, and dams,” says Ethan Ong. 

“I think we need to stop pollution, littering, and all of those things. We need to help the Earth,” says Anjelica Jabbie. 

Jashua Alvarado adds, “We need to take care of planet Earth because it is a gift for us. Without our planet, we wouldn’t be able to survive or anything.” 

Belmont Elementary’s 500 students themselves evoke a picture of the nation’s future: The school is part of the Prince William County school system, which serves one of the state’s fastest-growing counties. Prince William is also the most ethnically and racially diverse county in Virginia, and the 10th most diverse county in the country, according to the 2020 U.S. census. About two-thirds of the students at Belmont are Hispanic, 14% are Black, 9% are white, and 6% are Asian. About 77% are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. 

Belmont’s math and science focus fosters the students’ interest in the environment, as does their location: Less than 2 miles away is Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a habitat for migrating birds and butterflies. At Belmont, fourth and fifth graders get extra lessons in STEM subjects, such as robotics and hands-on science experiments.

Christina A. Samuels/The Hechinger Report

These fifth graders in Woodbridge, Virginia – (from left to right) Jashua Alvarado, Ethan Ong, Jason Rivera, Yanet Hundessa, Anjelica Jabbie, and Sam Aphayvong – all want to see a cleaner world in 20 years.

The coronavirus has affected the lives of these children since third grade – Prince William just returned to full-time, in-person learning this school year – but the fifth graders don’t like to imagine the pandemic in their future. 

“Let’s hope the pandemic is over,” says Jason Rivera. Other viruses may appear, “but maybe not very big.”

Or maybe there will be more warning, Jashua says. “Scientists would be able to tell if a pandemic is going to come to the world like two years before, or one year, or – I don’t know – months,” she says. 

The six students are chatting in an empty classroom at Belmont. They take each question seriously and answer thoughtfully. 

That’s perhaps not surprising from a group of students who see themselves playing ambitious roles in building a new world in the future – as engineers, doctors, and scientists. 

“My dad’s an engineer, and it seems really cool to build stuff, so I think I want to be an engineer,” Ethan says. 

“I’m kind of a science nerd and my mom tells me if I want to be a scientist, I have to be working hard for it,” says Jashua.

Yanet Hundessa and Anjelica will be helping other people. “I really want to be a doctor because I want to help the elderly,” Yanet says. 

“I also wanted to be an engineer or a doctor because I love helping people, and I love building things,” says Anjelica.

They also plan to take on problems that grown-ups are now leaving behind. “Why don’t we focus on other people that live in different places?” says Ethan. “There’s people that are poor that don’t have lots of resources and that don’t have food. See, we can turn on water so easily, but other people, they don’t have any.” 

That prompts another round of predicting for the day when they’re in charge.

“People could donate to countries that have poor resources,” says Sam Aphayvong. “If the people didn’t get the resources they need, they could become jealous and start wars. If you donate, you can prevent wars and stuff.”

“I think people should be kind to each other,” Yanet says. “No racism, and they should help out poor people and everybody will be equal.” – Christina A. Samuels, The Hechinger Report

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Fifth graders (from left to right) Breelyn Braga, Lydia Vasconcelos, and Marlen Palencia at the International Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, raise their hands to share ideas on what the world will look like in 2042.

Trips to Saturn and recycling electricity

PAWTUCKET, R.I. – At the International Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, a group of nine fifth-grade students gathers in a classroom full of art and writing supplies, with a globe displayed on a corner shelf. 

The children serve on their school’s student committee, elected positions, and their duties include representing the school and helping to organize events. On a chilly December morning, that included talking with a Monitor reporter about their aspirations for the world 20 years from now. 

For five minutes, the students are quiet as they focus on drawing pictures and jotting notes about what they think will be invented in two decades, when they reach the age of 30. The public charter school they attend in a town just north of Providence serves K-5 students and offers an International Baccalaureate curriculum and dual language immersion programs in English and Spanish or Portuguese. About half the students enrolled are English-language learners. 

“I think there’s going to be more machines for recycling and there will be new kinds of spacecraft so you can get to planets like Saturn and Mercury,” says Lydia Vasconcelos, who drew a picture of a recycling machine that separates trash automatically so it’s easier for more people to sort their waste.  

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Anne Hastings, a fifth grader at the International Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, sketches out her ideas of the future. In 20 years, she wants to run a dance company for children with disabilities.

Her peer Marlen Palencia is concerned the sky will be “more grayish” in 20 years due to pollution, so she wants to invent a watch that tells people when they are polluting, along with giving them nudges about when to eat and drink so they don’t consume too much or drink too little. 

Other classmates agree that they hope more people recycle and take care of the Earth in 20 years, and suggest inventions ranging from electricity that can be reused while watching television, to a machine that mixes up industrial waste areas to make fresh soil. 

Breelyn Braga thinks there will be hovering and self-driving cars, something she looks forward to since “I don’t want to run all the way back down the boulevard to get my car; my car just drives to me!” 

Wyatt Goldstein thinks we’ll have better spacecraft in 20 years and colonies on Mars. He thinks machines will do more of the mass-producing jobs on Earth, but on Mars, “humans will probably be having the jobs there because we need to be precise.” 

Alejandro Roa Martinez agrees that artificial intelligence will likely take over many occupations, but more robot designers, spacecraft engineers, and spaceship drivers will be needed. He’s interested in becoming an engineer who creates “things that help humanity and don’t destroy the world.”

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Pedro Daniel Reyes Garcia (front) and Alejandro Roa Martinez, draw their visions of the world in 20 years.

Even with the digital advances the class predicted – like more games and sports played online – many in the class hoped for more in-person social connections in 20 years. Pedro Daniel Reyes Garcia envisions a machine that could make a passport from an identification card in two days instead of a few months. “People could have more chances to get to places so they could visit their families,” he says. 

Julia Silva would like to see more schools open around the world so children who can’t afford school or aren’t allowed to go now can access education. 

Students spoke about their hopes for world peace, cures for COVID-19, and more equality between people of different races, ethnicities, and genders. 

“I hope that in the future there will be more possibilities open to people of different races and gender, because even though we’ve come a long way from where we started, still some jobs aren’t open to just about everyone, and some people are treated differently because of the way they look, act, or feel,” says Anne Hastings, who wants to open a dance company in 20 years for children with disabilities or who have been mistreated. 

Other classmates envision becoming game designers, doctors, and engineers. And many of these fifth graders look forward to something more mundane and practical in 20 years – enjoying the simple freedoms of adulthood. 

“I hope my life in 20 years will be fun, and I hope I can do stuff that I probably can’t do as a kid like go out by myself and stay with friends till midnight,” says Julia Silva. – Chelsea Sheasley, Monitor staff writer

Kathryn Palmer/The Hechinger Report

“We all want to be with our families. It just stinks seeing them on a screen and not even being able to talk in person.” – Ronny Tokeak, on why he wants the future to include face-to-face interaction

“It won’t matter how much money you have”

TUCSON, ARIZ. – Fifth graders of the future won’t have to wear masks to school every day, but they and everyone else will face big consequences for pollution and bullying. 

At least that’s how a handful of fifth graders at John B. Wright Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, imagine life in 20 years. When this school year started, they were in their third straight year of COVID-19-era learning. They’re mostly attending classes in person now, but many of them suspect that by the time they are in their early 30s, school will be taught entirely online. 

“We’ll all have more personal space in 20 years,” says Falhat Hassan on a recent Monday. She also envisions more dramatic changes: a freshly cleaned ocean; a weapon-free, war-free society; and the possibility of holographic teachers. “Everyone will have a new house to live in,” she adds. “It won’t matter how much money you have.” 

Kathryn Palmer/The Hechinger Report

“The whole world will be one big country, [and] no matter where you are from, everybody will get the same stuff.” – Khadija Hamadi

But what would happen to all of the existing houses? Her classmate Khadija Hamadi says that instead of tearing them down, animals could live in them. And if for some reason there isn’t enough room on Earth, there will be other housing options on the moon.

It’s part of her vision that, in the future, “the whole world will be one big country,” and “no matter where you are from, everybody will get the same stuff.” 

For the entirety of Khadija and her fifth grade classmates’ lives, immigration policy has been at the center of national debate. And since growing up in Tucson means living in a diverse college town 60 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, early exposure to mature conversations about who belongs in this country and who doesn’t is common. 

Discussions about how and if schools should teach America’s racist history have also been unavoidable over the past 18 months – even for fifth graders like these. Yet, on this day, they are also simultaneously fantasizing about a world filled with flying cars, virtual clothing, and perhaps no banks (because there may be no paper money). 

Kathryn Palmer/The Hechinger Report

“Racism will still be here. But it won’t be as bad as it is now. It will all be taken a lot more seriously.” – Jordan Allen

So, while they do disagree on what type of currency will exist in 20 years and if we’ll be able to time-travel and complete tasks using telekinesis, they are hopeful that in 2042 the color of a person’s skin will matter much less.

“Racism will still be here,” says Jordan Allen, as he sits at a picnic table discussing the future with his classmates, who all acknowledge that bullies like to zero in on the characteristics beyond our control. “But it won’t be as bad as it is now. It will all be taken a lot more seriously.” 

On top of that, the world will be a safer place because in 20 years police will rely on mind-reading technology to stop crimes before they happen, such as in the 2002 movie “Minority Report.”

Although Jordan and his peers aren’t sure if their generation will be the one to finally eradicate racism, they are all confident – or hopeful at least – that there will be no pandemic by the time they reach adulthood because scientists will have invented a universal vaccine capable of tackling any virus.

And with that out of the way, they’ll all be able to focus on their jobs. Yes, people will still have to work, but they’ll be more reliant on robots to get hard labor done. According to Ronny Tokeak, the in-demand job in 20 years will be “virtualist” – a person, he explains, who makes sure all the new technology out there is running smoothly.

Kathryn Palmer/The Hechinger Report

“Everyone will have a new house to live in. It won’t matter how much money you have.” – Falhat Hassan, a fifth grader at John B. Wright Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona

But when it is time to rest and play, the kids of today expect they will still gather in person to take in a football game, either at a stadium or around a giant TV capable of connecting to a viewer’s brain. By then, Ronny and his classmates predict, women will be as prevalent on the field as men. 

No matter how Americans’ leisure and work lives may change in the next 20 years, the fifth graders of 2022 know one thing: They never want to live in a world without face-to-face interaction. “We all want to be with our families,” Ronny says. “It just stinks seeing them on a screen and not even being able to talk in person.” – Kathryn Palmer, Monitor correspondent

This story was produced in partnership with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

On the first day of the new year, Stephen Boatright treated his 6-year-old to pancakes for her birthday. Later that day, they went to Build-a-Bear Workshop on a mission: to replace a stuffed animal lost in Colorado’s Marshall Fire. 

Far more than the bear had been lost. Just about everything, really. The Boatrights, like hundreds of other Colorado families, had lost their home in the waning days of 2021.

Last Thursday, in a matter of minutes, Mr. Boatright saw the gray sky turn black with smoke. He and his wife, three children, and visiting relatives fled the Sagamore neighborhood in Superior, Colorado, to a hotel as the Marshall Fire spread.  

All 370 houses in their subdivision reportedly went up in flames. “Pretty tough to kind of do the mental inventory and know what’s gone,” says Mr. Boatright.

There’s irony, too. The family’s experience last week echoed 2017, when they evacuated their previous place in California during the Tubbs Fire. Motivation for moving here, he says.

And yet, the generosity of strangers helped celebrate his daughter’s special day. Beyond a GoFundMe launched by relatives and donations like clothes, strangers dropped off birthday presents specifically for her: gift-wrapped books, cards signed by kids, a rainbow unicorn cake. Though a bit young to understand it all, she was excited, says her dad.

Much remains unclear in the aftermath of the blaze that evacuated 35,000 people: when residents can safely return, how the fire started, how to rebuild lives. But some locals say acts of kindness are soothing the uncertainty.

“I think the outpouring is the only thing holding us together,” says Mr. Boatright.

Alyson McClaran/Reuters

Volunteers bring in supplies to the YMCA of Northern Colorado after wind-driven wildfires prompted evacuation orders near Boulder, Colorado, Dec. 30, 2021.

Child care and ash sifters

In terms of buildings burned, the Dec. 30 Marshall Fire is considered the most destructive in the state’s history. Flames torched some 6,000 acres, destroying at least 991 homes and other structures primarily in Superior and Louisville. As of Monday afternoon, the cause remains under investigation, according to Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, and two people are still confirmed missing. Recent heavy snowfall and debris have complicated searches. 

Colorado is no stranger to wildfires. Near-record-low precipitation and warm temperatures – the latter aided by climate change – had parched the suburban grassland area, says Andy Hoell, a drought expert at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Physical Sciences Laboratory. The blaze was driven by winds at times over 100 mph. 

Solidarity, meanwhile, was also gathering speed. People began mobilizing over social media to help connect evacuees to missing pets. By the weekend, over $1 million had been raised for the Boulder County Wildfire Fund. Volunteers turned up at evacuation sites to donate time and goods. 

“We have an enormous outpouring of support. ... All day long we’ve had folks coming by [saying], ‘How can I help?’” American Red Cross public affairs officer John Seward told the Monitor at the YMCA of Northern Colorado on Friday, as helpers stacked a wall of water bottles. 

Others are finding additional ways to serve. A Lafayette clothing store is offering women shopping stipends, reports 9News. Bal Swan Children’s Center is welcoming preschoolers free of charge this week, starting Tuesday, for families in need. The Broomfield school also served as a distribution site this weekend for personal protective equipment and sifter boxes – wooden frames with mesh middles to help search for belongings under ash.

Courtesy of Erin Moe

Volunteers construct sifter boxes to help families look for their belongings in the ashes left over from the Marshall Fire in Colorado.

The Marshall Fire Sifter Squad – a volunteer group reachable via Facebook – has assembled over 90 sifter boxes for families and plans to make more due to demand. Organizer Stephanie Tinsley, who first learned to construct them during the 2018 Woolsey Fire in California, says they’re trying to connect volunteers with homeowners who want help sifting.

“Some won’t want help with that. It’s a pretty personal thing ... so we’re trying to be sensitive to whatever it is the homeowner needs,” says the PR professional.

Access permitting, she says she’s agreed to help sift with a woman who lost her home and hopes to find her wedding ring.

“People have been very kind” 

Snow covers the scorched homes, but not the smell. On Sunday, local law enforcement patrolled the ruins of a Louisville neighborhood, deterring visitors for safety. From the entrance, smoke is visible farther down the street. 

Seth Lopez stands in the snow near the entrance – his first time back. The landscape designer had hoped to walk down to his aunt and uncle’s home, which he’d been moving into before it burned. The remainder of his belongings are in his car: two loads of laundry, Christmas gifts, power tools.

Sarah Matusek/The Christian Science Monitor

Seth Lopez stands at the entrance to a burned-down Louisville, Colorado, neighborhood on Jan. 2, 2022, where his aunt and uncle's home once stood. He had been moving in. Grateful for outreach he's received, he says, "One of the few good things to take away from all this is that people have been very kind to each other."

He’s bracing himself for several expenses, including what he needs to rebuild his business, Denali Landscape and Design Services. Still, he says he’s been moved with gratitude for all the outreach making sure he has warm clothes for winter and places to sleep. 

“One of the few good things to take away from all this is that people have been very kind to each other,” he says. 

When Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow took a week off from salmon farming in 1992 to drive donated food and supplies across Europe to war refugees in a disintegrating Yugoslavia, he told himself it would be a one-and-done.

Drive a truck 1,700 miles down to Bosnia, deliver basic necessities to displaced families he’d heard were in desperate need, return home to Scotland’s west coast. End of good-deed adventure.

But when Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow returned to the corrugated-metal shed he called home, he discovered a front porch piled high with canned goods, warm clothing, blankets, and more. Neighbors and strangers had learned of his mission to families living through war in a distant part of Europe. And they had kept on giving.

“I looked at that mountain of stuff, and the thought came to me that God had a very different plan for me. It seemed I wasn’t quite done,” he says.

And indeed he was not. Today Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow is founder and CEO of Mary’s Meals, a charity based in Dalmally, Scotland, that delivers more than 2 million meals a day to schoolchildren in 19 of the world’s poorest countries, from Eastern Europe to West Africa and Southeast Asia.

The one-time salmon farmer’s brainchild has even managed to continue providing meals to schoolkids in an increasingly unstable Ethiopia as it slips toward civil war – including in the besieged Tigray region. (Since July, Tigray has been under a humanitarian blockade imposed by the government in Addis Ababa.)

Hunger and poverty, together

The idea behind Mary’s Meals is a simple one: In a world with widespread hunger, and nearly 60 million primary-school-age kids out of school, according to UNICEF, and many millions more living in extreme poverty, take on those challenges together.

To reduce child hunger and tackle poverty at the same time, provide kids with a healthy lunch at school. Kids getting at least one solid meal a day won’t go hungry, and getting that meal at school will allow them to keep studying instead of having to turn to menial jobs to fill a gnawing belly.

Moreover, kids who stay in school longer are likely to have a better chance of getting a good job and pulling themselves out of poverty.

Courtesy of Mary’s Meals

Mary and Angelina, two recent nursing school graduates in South Sudan, were able to stay in primary school and continue to high school once Mary's Meals arrived in their schools.

Indeed, it was a boy named Edward who sparked the idea for Mary’s Meals. Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow met him while delivering food to Malawi in 2002. When asked about his dreams for the future, Edward said simply: to have enough food to allow him to go to school.

The spread of Mary’s Meals around the globe and evidence that its approach is making a difference in hundreds of thousands of young lives has put the organization on the international hunger-reduction map and earned its founder accolades.

In 2015, Time magazine named Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow to its list of 100 people making a difference.

Lives transformed

Still, the erstwhile salmon farmer says what inspires him are the many young people who take a simple thing – a meal a day they get at school – and make it the basis of a life transformation out of hunger and poverty, and often into once-unimaginable careers.

He speaks of Veronica, an orphaned girl who was among the first 200 children Mary’s Meals fed in Malawi. Today Veronica has a degree in education and teaches in a college.

And there is Moses Tumah, who as a small boy survived Liberia’s civil war by running away from his war-torn native province of Bomi for the capital Monrovia. When peace allowed him to return to Bomi in 2005, his village had been burned down, and there was no money for school or food.

But the arrival of Mary’s Meals a year later allowed Moses to go to school and stay enrolled, rather than leaving to figure out a way to eat and stay alive. The assurance of a meal as part of every school day changed his life, Moses says.

“A lot of us at the time had no money, but that one meal a day gave us hope, and made it possible for us to graduate from high school,” he says.

Today Moses works for Mary’s Meals in Bomi province as a community coordinator, going out into the field to expand the program’s reach to new schools by developing the local teams that prepare and deliver the food Mary’s Meals provides.

Courtesy of Mary’s Meals

Liberian Moses Tumah was able to stay in school in the post-civil war years in his native Bomi region because Mary's Meals came to his school. He now works for Mary's Meals in Bomi, training communities to prepare the meals going into their schools.

And although Moses is speaking on the phone, one can hear the pride in his voice when he offers the fact that today Mary’s Meals serves 124,000 children in Bomi and surrounding areas – and the number continues to grow.

“We know there are parents who can’t afford a morning meal for their children,” he says. “But when I see them bringing their children to school knowing that by 10 a.m. they will have something to eat so they can do their school work, it is what makes me want to reach more children and schools.”

Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow concurs that it is the individual stories that inspire him and keep Mary’s Meals going.

But these days he is looking beyond his own organization to the bigger picture. From his shed in Scotland, he says he is now “dipping a toe” into the question of what it would actually take to end hunger by 2030 – one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the international community in 2015.

Moral duty

And here, too, Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow has an idea. If the world is serious about ending hunger, he says, the international community should pursue an urgent we’re-all-in-this-together project mirroring the intentions (if not the practice) of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We should have defeated long ago the notion that hunger is acceptable anywhere,” he says. “But here we are going backwards, with hunger crises developing in so many places, from Zimbabwe to Haiti,” he adds. “Even in India, a huge country that had made such progress.”

He could have added Afghanistan, where aid experts say as many as 1 million children could perish this winter as a result of international assistance drying up in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power this past summer.

Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow says he understands that hunger has “slipped off the agenda” as the pandemic has diverted global attention. “I get it, leaders are preoccupied with addressing this terrible new problem at home first,” he says.

But he says that the same sense of moral duty that was part of what spurred world leaders to meet in forums like the G20 or to create COVAX, the global vaccine initiative, to address the pandemic collectively, should also prompt a serious global campaign to end hunger.

“I’m just a simple salmon farmer working from a shed in Scotland,” Mr. MacFarlane-Barrow says. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned” – starting way back with those piles of donated goods on his shed porch – “it’s that there’s an overwhelming generosity inside most people.”

“People want to support a cause so basic and human as ending hunger,” he adds, “but they need some leadership that says, ‘We can do this!’ and then points the way to getting it done.”

When I have the stamina to stay up late on New Year’s Eve, I like to watch the Times Square ball drop in New York. I’ve never been on-site for that festive event but watching and listening to the sounds that celebrate the changing of the calendar from one year to the next energize me. They make me hopeful about the changes that will occur in my life when a fresh, new year rings in.

What I didn’t realize until recently, however, is that the roots of the annual ball-dropping tradition go way back in time, actually before time.

Change has always had a sound. “In the beginning,” however you want to frame that term, a sound – a heated wind, an exploding wave, or a spoken word – started the change that resulted in something new: our universe. That theory, which some call the big bang, is often used to explain how the universe, along with everything in it, started, was birthed, evolved, developed, grew, progressed, advanced – you can pick your favorite word for change.

Change has been happening to things, meaning everything, since the beginning. And while these bangs and their accompanying changes often feel like loss, tragedy, heartbreak, or catastrophe, if we look for the good – how change moved the universe and human life forward – we might experience creations in the making. 

Longing for what was

My first dreams about the new year were for it to take me back to how life was before the catastrophe called COVID-19 happened. But catastrophes are not meant to take us backward but forward. They invite us to learn, to change, to grow, to be new creations.

I’ve changed over the past couple of years, willingly and unwillingly. I’ve learned that I can enjoy meeting with people virtually without saying one single time that I wish we were in person, even though I wish that. I’ve attended outstanding online presentations – most at no cost – that I could never have afforded to travel to, and they would never have been offered online if not for the disruptive impact of COVID-19.  

I’ve learned to discern fact from fiction while realizing that new data can change the facts and that the continuous upgrading of factual information is to be turned into active, real-time wisdom.

Catastrophes, disruptions of cataclysmic proportions, have occurred on our planet more times than we can count, and people have always tried to make sense of such happenings.

Folks who study the layers of our planet theorize that our earth was covered in water at least once and perhaps three times. People in more ancient times surmised these possibilities as well and told a story about a worldwide catastrophe called the flood. This flood narrative not only recognizes a catastrophe – or catastrophes – that took place at some time in our planet’s history, but also serves as a cautionary tale of personal choice run amok. It’s about people refusing the survival solution that was right before their eyes and instead taking the chance that they could tread water for 40 days and 40 nights in a torrential downpour. 

While tragic, that story ends with us still being here.

Over time, we’ve had to navigate our way through other catastrophes – world wars, global financial depressions, and diseases. We’ve done that as we’ve continually assessed and reassessed who and what to believe.

For the most part, ordinary, everyday folks have no voice in the bangs that get things started, but I’m learning that, by sounding like compassion, truth, and justice, I can offer my voice to changes that move the human story forward. Catastrophes, when analyzed truthfully and worked on cooperatively, have the potential to be converted, redeemed, and transformed. That’s a hope I bring to the new year.

Becoming a more human human being

Our universe has been around for roughly 14 billion years and has proven to be resilient, while ever changing and growing and moving. We humans – in our current iteration – have been on this planet for about 200,000 years. And despite the frequent catastrophes – both natural and those we inflict on each other by fighting over land, oil, and other stuff – we have, so far, been able to bounce back.

I’m curious, though, about the narratives we will write, and the lessons we will pass on to those who come after us. Will we provide life-giving wisdom that will help them manage their catastrophes?

Humanity’s interdependence is the lesson I’m taking away from our current catastrophe, and I hope to heighten an awareness of its importance. When catastrophes strike, I can’t focus on my well-being only; I also must care about the well-being of others, even if caring means personal inconvenience. And it goes without saying, that we don’t have to wait for a catastrophe to be concerned about the welfare of others.

Like every year before it, this new year will have its bangs – moments that will initially sound like loss, tragedy, heartbreak, or catastrophe. But on deeper listening and reflection, such events – if I choose to learn from them, to grow and change – can prove to be the very events that move me closer to being a more human human being. 

A critical task life asks of us is to be able to distinguish all the noise around us from the sounds that make for a good life – not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors, whether that neighbor lives next door or on the other side of the world.

As we turn the page and enter a new year, my celebration is tempered by a humbling acknowledgment. We can’t have the past we long for or the future we dream about without more of us making sounds that ring in truth, safety, equity, and justice for the good of us all.

AP

Eric Adams holds up a framed photo of his mother at his swearing-in as New York mayor in Times Square, Jan. 1, 2022.

As 2021 gives way to 2022, it’s not always easy to put into words the aspirations that well up. But sometimes poets express what we can’t.

In 1850, Britain’s new poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote “Ring Out, Wild Bells.” His poem imagines that the church bells marking the new year will “Ring out the old, ring in the new / ... Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

In words that resonate today he hears the bells pealing with hope: 

Ring out false pride in place and blood
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease; ...
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand.

Today poet Amanda Gorman employs the language of the 21st century but expresses the same conviction that good lies ahead. At last year’s presidential inaugural, the 22-year-old Ms. Gorman roused listeners with her poem “The Hill We Climb.” To mark 2022, she wrote "New Day's Lyric." 

A challenging 2021, she says, has only made us stronger. She writes, in part:

Tethered by this year of yearning, 
We are learning 
That though we weren’t ready for this, 
We have been readied by it. 
Steadily we vow that no matter 
How we are weighed down, 
We must always pave a way forward. 
This hope is our door, our portal.

Acknowledge the past, she says, but don’t live there:

So let us not return to what was normal, 
But reach toward what is next. 
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure. ...
Come over, join this day just begun. 
For wherever we come together, 
We will forever overcome.

New York City’s new mayor, Eric Adams, isn’t a poet, but he knew how to use stirring language to put a punctuation mark on his approach to 2022. The mayor is the son of a housecleaner, a single mother, and his own story speaks of challenges faced – and defeated. 

In a New Year’s Day speech on his first day in office, he conceded, “The crisis tells us that it is in charge.” But, the mayor defiantly vowed, “we will not be controlled by crisis.”

Spoken with the enthusiasm of a newcomer who brings fresh, inspired thinking. And that’s something all of us can contribute in the year ahead.