Recently my family spent a week in London, a rescheduled trip that had been cancelled due to Covid. My wife and I wanted our boys to experience the city where I had spent a month in college and my wife had spent a summer while in college. We saw all the sites and, as a treat, went to a traditional Covent Garden theater, the Duke of York’s, where we saw An Enemy of the People, a play my younger son was especially excited to see as it starred Matt Smith, an actor who stars in House of Dragon, the prequel to Game of Thrones, one of his favorite TV shows. 

The play was fantastic to say the least. In short, the play is about a doctor (played by Matt Smith) who discovers that the local water supply, on which the town is completely dependent financially due to their famous spa, is polluted. The character declares that he is going to do the right thing and make his finding known so the town can fix the problem. Fixing the problem, however, would require shutting down the spa and would be extremely expensive. Over the course of the story, everyone in the town slowly turns against the character as his desire to protect the health of the townspeople and tourists alike threatens the town’s finances. The townspeople are called to a meeting to discuss the problem, and the main character makes an impassioned speech, not just about the town’s water but what humans have done to degrade the environment in which we all live. 

At that point in the play, much to everyone’s surprise and delight, the house lights were turned on and the audience become the townspeople and part of the play. The audience members and the actors discussed this issue of how we live, the problems humans have caused, and what we all can do about them. Although the conversation touched on many topics—one audience member tearfully described how hard it had been as a gay person to be accepted, another who was wearing a mask talked about the collective responsibility of everyone to protect those old and vulnerable from Covid—the message I took away from the discussion and the play is that while social, political, and environmental problems may be global in size, the change that starts to address them can happen at the grassroots level. While one person may not be able to solve a global problem, the solution can start with one person engaging with another and working to make a positive difference. We cannot let ourselves be overwhelmed into inaction by the size of the problems we face. The problems are global, but the solutions start local. 

Just how inspiring was the message? I’m getting involved at, yes, the local level. Global warming and climate change is a global problem and one that I can’t personally solve, but I can help. There’s a push in my state to adopt building codes to make homes more energy efficient. I’ve signed up to help garner support among the people in my town so these new building codes are adopted. I’ll be attending town meetings, writing emails, and talking to friends and acquaintances to build support. A few new building codes are a small change, but that’s the point: if we all make one small change, it will add up to a world of difference.