Antidote!!!
A Longer Term Cure to Our Country’s Ailments
“So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope.”
— Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Our country’s hurting. While protests are a necessary reaction to the immediate dangers facing us, in effect our nation’s corporal immune system doing its work, what is the longer term remedy for what ails us?
Some longer term cures:
Empathize.
We need to reengage our sense of empathy. And that starts with understanding. It starts with walking steps in our fellow Americans’ shoes.
To help me better understand the American experience of so many that are unlike my own, I found these two books particularly enlightening:
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Build.
We need to reengage our sense of industry. And that starts with action. To know each other, we must build together. Build schools, build parks, build tools, build homes. A nation is built on the prior, and not vice versa.
When we build together, we know each other. We connect, we naturally form the bonds of empathy and understanding through the pursuit of quality work.
These two projects inspire me to build with others:
MIT’s middle east entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Bringing Palestinian and Israeli high school students together to create positive change through technology.
Mother of 4 Builds her Home… From Scratch.
“Anyone who’s been through any sort of a difficult time. Find something big and do it. It may not be building a house, but find something so big that it changes the way you think about yourself.” — Cara Brookins, mother of four.
And finally…
Minimize.
We need to reexamine the philosophical values that drive us. Do we live to create or to consume? The answer to that question defines our future, both as individuals and as a nation.
A perfect complement to the joy of building together, minimizing consumption frees you from the rat race. Sixteen months ago, I quit my job with a child on the way and no plan B. I could never have done this if we had upgraded every aspect of our living condition and lived paycheck to paycheck.
A couple additional resources helped me to appreciate the practical and spiritual benefits of reducing ones own consumption.
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
The Minimalists Netflix Documentary
Continue fighting the fight. But one day (soon I hope) when the thunder subsides, we need to find other quieter, more constructive and more enduring ways to heal our nation.
The work starts now.
