WE ARE IN THIS SOUP TOGETHER
Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020
How we are treating each other is the most critical foundational problem impacting how we can deal with all the other issues we collectively face.
Yes, it’s old fashioned to talk about civility — but don’t we need that to solve geopolitical and ancestral religious and geographical divide?
Be kind to one person today. Not everyone – that’s too big a stretch. Start with one, perhaps one of the most challenging people in your orbit, and be a bit nicer to them. Don’t slather it on, don’t bow, or roll out the red carpet: do one something kind, different, and helpful for that person. Then see how it feels.
Yes, tomorrow will come – bringing with it another opportunity to be a bit nicer toward that one person. Too soon to focus on another, stay focused on that one nemesis. Don’t worry that you won’t crack that nut, or change them, because that isn’t the purpose. No, the objective is to change you. To change ourselves.
The first person to focus on being different for is that really challenging person; might be a boss, a spouse, an uncooperative employee or teenager, a grumpy neighbor, or a hard-to-serve customer. Just pick one. Focus on them with a single action each day, every day, until things change…
You might scoff, or you might suggest working on a 2nd person, or a 3rd – not yet. Stay focused on that one person. Partly because they are so important, because ‘if you can make changes with them, you can make changes with anyone,’ but mostly because the 2nd person in this chain of change is you. Yes, you are the object of this exercise. It seems like it’s all about changing your relationship with that one person, but the subtle trick is, this is about changing your relationship with yourself.
We are all capable of this. We likely won’t succeed on the first try, or the second – but if we don’t give up, we will have a breakthrough.
Indeed, it is not the planet we need to save — it is this species, humans, we must preserve.
I don’t think we are ‘endangered’ yet, but surely we are ‘at risk.’ And it’s not about climate v. weather, not about CO2 v coral reefs, not about plastic straws v. paper straws; it’s about fixing ourselves before it’s the last straw.
We are in the soup – the collective intelligence of us all seems not immune for bizarre geopolitics, ethically questionable use of technologies, and viruses derived from bats …
We can paddle our way out of the soup, but only if we work together and treat each other better. That starts with all of us. While we are so busy being better, faster, more effective, and more powerful, we can all start by being more helpful to someone. It will spread further and better than anything viral – be it technology, or bat-related.
