So here’s an experiment. I’d like to know what you think. Sometimes I share articles and others’ content on Social Media but not here. I’m going to try sharing some of this here. If you like this idea let me know and I’ll share more.
One of the things I think a lot about these days, as you might imagine, is how to stay positive in the midst of this whatever the hell this is that we’re all living in now. There are some that feel it’s impossible to and we should all be in a state of fear and misery – ideally being active in hopefully stopping some of what’s happening. But for me the thing is, it’s not easy to get up the energy and hope that is required to be active if you’re in that state of constant fear and misery that some seem to prescribe.
I really like what Mike Monteiro says in his recent post: How to Get to Tomorrow and the analogy he uses of his dad heating only part of the house in the cold of the winter is spot on. (We didn’t do it to that level but I do remember installing shrink-wrap plastic on all the windows and using the hair dryer to make them tight and clear – and before that even using opaque plastic to keep the wood stove heat in). Read the piece, his breaking down how to manage life in these times is useful.
I admit, I am a little embarrassed at the number of times I refer to something I watched on TikTok here but I really liked this as well as a coping strategy when worried about the future. I don’t remember who said it but one person said to look back on yourself right now and imagine your self 20 years in advance gets to travel back and experience this day today with your younger body and life. Sage reminded me of this last night when a certain orange person’s talk about Canada started again and I started to despair.
So my mid-70s self travels back to today. What are they going to find. Not the worries – that person knows what’s going to happen or not and are already on the other side of much of it. They just see what is happening right this minute. So for example, that 70+ year old could come here now. I’m sitting at this desk, finishing my second cup of delicious coffee. He’s going shopping for a new bike when the coffee is finished. Right now he’s in reasonably good physical shape – enough that a 120 km ride is do-able and a 200km and maybe even a 300km ride is on the horizon. Work is good with minimal politics, lots of mutual respect with colleagues and an interesting project. There is time to volunteer, do things like donate blood and a bit of extra money that lets him help friends and charities. Maybe the past felt less chaotic (though really, the pandemic isn’t that far behind us and how was that?) and in reality the future is 100% imaginary. There are some things that are likely, and lots of things that are unpredictable right now and both the good and bad things are both uncertain, and in many cases things we have no control over. So better to just experience the day and do what you can to help.
And this, along with reminding myself of the good that’s happening in the world (which means there are lots of good people doing good things) is how I get through this.
Speaking of which, why not give a few examples of that?
Lately there’s lots of talk about super wealthy people doing terrible things. There’s no doubt about that. However, this woman just donated $100 million dollars to housing and education non-profits in memory of her late husband.
I don’t know why but bikes seem to attract good people. DIY shops teach people how to fix their own bikes and many like this one, Working Bikes, fix up donated bikes, selling some to support themselves while 15% go back into the community to provide transportation to local people and others are donated overseas. All in all they’ve rescued over 150,000 bikes from the landfill.
Meanwhile, closer to home is a story I hadn’t heard about from Brampton, right next door to Toronto. I know two things about Brampton. The first is there are lots of really great Indian restaurants and groceries there. The second is that much of the cycling there is terrifying. The streets are extremely wide with high speed limits, some crazy drivers and cyclists are rare enough that nobody is watching for them. So for the most part I avoid it completely except a few select safe-ish routes for bicycles. However, what I didn’t know is they put a lot of effort in and now have extremely high transit usage – among the highest in North America – for a city of its size. And they did it by providing the service first rather than waiting for people to ride a system with poor/infrequent coverage and service and then using that to justify expansion. Good transit, especially when fuel prices are so high, is something that many love and lots (like me) rely on. So if you see that an alternative to a car (or a bike on a scary street!) is available, they take it. You can read about their experience here.
And now the coffee is finished. Time to go bike shopping. Wish me luck!
I liked this post Todd. In theses times it is good to try and look at all the good that is haall over the world. Rames Naik is a teacher in Asare. He and his friend Manjunath have formed Adithya Trust. They help the very poor and disabled. Their network is becoming wider and many are helping them.My mother gives them financial support. Ramesh tells me what they are doing and that negates the negativity going on. Thank you.
That’s so true. It reminds me of a story an old boss told me when talking about a particularly stressful work situation with a client about 30 years ago. He said “There are always at least three stories, their story, our story, and reality.” And I think that’s really true. We all have inbuilt negativity bias so that’s like “their story” and we have reality which is, of course, reality – we’ll never know what that is. Then there’s “our story”. That’s where the choice is and that’s where the power is as well. If our story is “it’s hopeless” it pushes reality in that direction because of what we do (or don’t do) and the messages we share that convince others. If we’re practising toxic positivity we might do nothing because “Hey, it’s fine. Everything always works out, right?” But in the end what gets stuff done (for me anyway) is a mix of “Wow, the situation is pretty dire, but there are people doing good things and I can be one of them.” To me that’s how things will get better. And what we take in really plays into this. Doomscroll a lot through social media and you’ll be more convinced it’s hopeless and there’s no point in doing anything. Which is why I try to take in just enough to be informed but balance it out with stories like I share here. And stories like yours help as well. In fact, stories we *haven’t* heard about often make me feel even better. It makes me feel like even beneath all of these good news stories getting published, there are thousands of unsung heroes.