A Change of Focus: The Long View, a New View
When I lived in New York City, I remember having an epiphany. I suddenly envisioned how the city functioned. Everyone had to trust that each citizen and worker would do their particular job. The bus drivers, engineers, trash collectors, janitors, bankers, policymakers, teachers, social workers, cooks, mayor, actors and artists, everyone had to do their thing so that the whole enterprise would continue to function. Of course, there were glitches and breakdowns along the way. But on the whole, I was astonished that all the systems, pieces and parts kept going, and the city worked. And everyone went about their business, not spending much time thinking about whether the water would run, or the lights would turn on, or any other system would operate. This reality is true for all communities. Large cities make this truth more obvious and dramatic. Yesterday, reading “Underland: A Deep Time Journey” by Robert MacFarlane,…
The Election Is Over, But Now What? How Do We Move Forward Together?
The election is over, yet the country is still divided. And not just divided, but vehemently so. There is a sizable number of people who feel strongly that the election is either not over or has been rigged. In the past, one of our strengths as a nation was our ability to accept the electoral outcome, gracefully pull together and move on as one nation. That is not happening. In my last blog I wrote about managing to stay grounded during times of change and stress, specifically the recent election season. Now, post-election, our task is to figure out how to pull together again as one nation so we can move forward. How do we do this? I see and hear people who are adamant and emotionally committed, in fact, people who deeply identify with a different outcome than the one declared. I do not remember seeing this pitch of…
Thoughts and Tips on Staying Calm Now
Tomorrow is the end of voting ‘season.’ This year voting has lasted for a month or longer. The whole exercise is not contained in one day. And it’s hard to call this Tuesday election ‘day.’ Instead, it may stretch out over days or even weeks. For a long time, I have been anxiously waiting for this election to arrive. Now it’s here. Realizing that it is actually upon us, I began to wonder how to manage the experience. I don’t want to bob around on the ups and downs and swirl of news and emotion that I expect will grip the country. I decided to find tips on how to keep an even keel despite the buffets and strong currents eddying in the culture around me. They can also serve me during future challenges as well. These ideas and suggestions come from a variety of sources, ryanholiday.net/10-ways/ is a great…
A Compass for a Positive Focus
Times are tumultuous. It’s hard to find a safe and calm haven in the midst of all the changes and challenges. There are so many. I want to offer a couple of thoughts on how to create and manage one’s own safe harbor. Earlier today, listening to the radio program On Being, a guest reflected that life is “fluid” not static or set. This made me think of the saying, “the only constant is change.” Most of the time this perspective seems daunting. Is instability all we can expect? Is there nothing we can count on? But there is another side to this. The speaker was suggesting that the fluidity of life is good. Put another way, there is always possibility, even when things seem dark and bleak. The natural world around us reflects this fluidity in the passage of time and the changing seasons. These are not threatening or…
What Does This Time Require of Us?
Initially I planned to write about the meaning of sacrifice and the need for all of us to make sacrifices now for the good of everyone in our society. But I kept running into my own judgements on why I believe this is so and what to do about it. And I became uncomfortable with the subtle and not so subtle finger-pointing that my perspective seemed to require. The whole approach began to feel wrong to me. Who needs more lecturing or moralizing right now! No one. So, I am taking a different tack to wrestle with the same problem. That problem is the general sense of chaos and division in our country now. What to do about it? In short, we need to find a way to enact positive collective action. There is evidence of this in some discrete areas of our culture now. I think of the general…
Gobsmacked!
What to do when I feel absolutely overwhelmed? Up to my gills and over in consternation and anxiety? The first thing I do is pull into my shell. In this case, the upset comes from news about present events. I then turn off the radio, the news, everything. I avoid social media. The silence is powerful and strange. Usually I have the radio on and a soothing sound of music or the patter of voices floats around me. In the silence I feel cocooned and separated from the mayhem, the drama and hyperbole. I will remain separate from these connections until I feel right about venturing forth again. The other thing I do is to immediately text a friend whom I trust and will understand my feelings. When I get a knowledgeable, supportive reply, I feel better. As I often do, I later look up sources of advice about managing…
The Value of Spending Time in the Natural World
It’s September 7th, Labor Day and the end of my blog-vacation. Although much has happened during the last month, tough things, I feel refreshed by the time off. Now, back to work. Almost everyone I know, and every story I hear in some way relates to this difficult time. People are stressed, anxious, tired, and challenged by the effects of the pandemic, hits to the economy, social unrest, and oh yeah, an election. For this reason, I decided to write about something that I find calming and restorative, spending time in the natural world. I also hear that many people are turning to vacations in nature during this difficult time. I get outside every day. I am out for 20 to 45 minutes a day, depending on my schedule. My dog Sebastian and I walk/jog on a bike path and through fields and woods. This time outside and exercising sets…
Your Choice: What will Your Journey Be?
For me, the past two weeks were a challenge. Without going into details, a confluence of events, all created or compounded by COVID piled up. By the end of last week, I felt the weight of much sadness, loss, and a sense of dislocation. And I know that I have not had the toughest of times. Many have experienced more profound losses and disruptions. The events I experienced opened me to resonating more than before with the depth of change and destruction happening in our world. When I heard the term “lifequake,” I stopped. That word captured what I have sensed that many are feeling. I was listening to a radio program and an interview with Bruce Feiler. He discussed his just published book, “Life Is in the Transitions.” I looked up the book, which I have not yet read, and discovered that the term that caught my ear is…
In It for the Long Haul
By now it’s clear, COVID is with us to stay for a while. And no one knows how long that will be. Or how it will be. We all wish for some degree of stability and assurance that we can depend on so today and tomorrow unfold with some predictability. We yearn for the medicines that will cure or prevent this infection. At first, there was the shock of it. And then I believe that, as we moved into the reality of our situation, stages of grief and mourning emerged. Denial, “oh, it’s just like the flu” or “by summer it will fade away” or “I might as well get it and get it over with.” Anger, “don’t tell me I have to wear a mask!” or “get back from me six feet!” or “I’m gonna do what I want, and I don’t care!” Bargaining, “I can do this for…
What is the difference between ‘not being racist’ and ‘being an antiracist?’
I look at my own life to explore this. I always believed I was not a racist. I am of the age that I remember the civil rights era, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his speeches and marches. I was too young to participate, but I was aware and admired those who were marching and speaking out. I was proud that our country did enact laws and policies to improve some aspects of injustice such as voting rights. Racism. As I usually do, I looked up the definition. The definition that came up first through Google was no surprise, “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” What is annoying to me about this definition is that the concept “racial… group” which refers back to idea of…