Weekly Roundup: Pandemic 3
December 7 - 11, 2020
Monday: Have our support groups, small groups, theology groups, book groups, and youth groups given us jargon or given us the tools to build a different world?
Tuesday: School might be migrating online, which means certifications (and status) will also migrate. But the assumption that prestige, good teaching, and real learning go hand-in-hand is further proving untrue.
Wednesday: What do you have to offer now, that’s not merely a repackaging of what I already have, that’s not just talk or theory, and that is concretely and practically helpful?
Thursday: This is the time, in the middle of the storm, that faith communities can offer clarity, balance, and wisdom. And it’s also a time when they need to deliver on real needs.
Friday: However, the former questions insist that we’re returning to the familiar; the latter take seriously the need to adapt to the new world that has arrived.
Are you interested in the whole reflection? Click on any day, and it will take you there.
Want to help grow the community of people like us that are unwilling to continue in ways like this? Help us spread the word: share on Facebook, Twitter, or with a friend via email. Find the links below.
Adapting to the New World
[Pandemic - XV]
- What will you do when the vaccine is available?
- Where will you go when travel resumes as before?
- What will you do when the quarantine is lifted?
- What will you do when gyms open up again?
- What restaurant will you eat at first when it’s allowed?
Those questions are different than these questions:
- What habits will you change to strengthen your immune system?
- What activities will be a priority now that you’ve been without them for a year?
- What food will you learn to cook so you’re not missing it in the future?
- How will you diversify your exercise routine so you don’t need a gym?
One list is not hopeful and the other fearful.
One list is not optimistic and the other pessimistic.
However, the former questions insist that we’re returning to the familiar; the latter take seriously the need to adapt to the new world that has arrived.
People like us prioritize the latter.
What questions are your asking, and what do they tell you about your understanding of the world?
Advertising Deficiency
[Pandemic - XIV]
The pandemic has exposed so many real needs. Needs that were hidden from the public eye before the the first lockdown. A more resilient food system, childcare support, diverse schooling options, financial assistance programs, and affordable housing, to name a few.
Needs drive consumption.
Companies know this. Consumers feel it. Advertisers make big money because of it.
In a first world context, our unmet needs are minimal (by comparison), so advertisers are employed to create the illusion of need by reminding us of what we don’t have. The premise of most commercials is the message, “You are deficient.”
But the pandemic has exposed real, everyday needs, and not just manufactured deficiencies. We might say, the pandemic is giving advertisers some “competition”: the perception of need vs. real need. It’s this juxtaposition that causes quasi-innocent consumers to get whipped up into a frenzy because many of them are feeling the difference between the real and the manufacturing thing for the first time (in a long time). So, they act erratically. Like hoarding toilet paper.
This is the time, in the middle of the storm, that faith communities can offer clarity, balance, and wisdom. And it’s also a time when they need to deliver on real needs.
They can’t and won’t, however, if a) they've been an advertising company all along, or b) they haven’t done the hard work to know what the real, specific needs are around them.
What are the real needs around you? Deliver.
What do You Offer?
[Pandemic - XIII]
What do you have to offer?
A promise of the future won’t cut it.
A reformulation, repackaging, or rearrangement of the old won’t do.
An eloquent monologue isn't helpful.
A more polished version of something else doesn’t fly.
A theory doesn't get us anywhere.
Allow me to rephrase: What do you have to offer now, that’s not merely a repackaging of what I already have, that’s not just talk or theory, and that is concretely and practically helpful?
The pandemic is forcing the question . . .
Of you.
Of your business.
Of your faith community.
Are we doing the hard work of asking ourselves?
Pandemic Learning
[Pandemic - XII]
The pandemic has moved most schooling online. To be fair, the movement predates COVID. We can work effectively from a distance, we can communicate while thousands of miles apart, and we can access virtually any information instantaneously from anywhere in the world.
The writing was on the wall: Why can’t we educate remotely?
Holding the title (or the reputation) as the most prestigious institution in the world requires you lead rather than follow, lest you appear to be slipping behind. That’s why Harvard was one of the first and most adamant universities to put classes online. And many of them free.
Then the pandemic hit, and no students went to class. Can you imagine paying $50k+/year and miss 100% of the classroom interaction, face-to-face teacher engagement, and campus experience?
I can.
Because one doesn’t go to Harvard for what they can get for $10K/year at a state school.
They attend for the certificate that says “Harvard" on it. And “Harvard” means something different to the gatekeepers of certain industries. It's a symbol of prestige. And if “Harvard” gets you through the gate, there are real-world, measurable payouts for that. It makes financial sense over time. (And some people find immense value in status and prestige.)
So, I checked in on a free Harvard course. And it was terrible.
I also checked in on a Third Grade math class at a local public school. And it was far better.
Then I checked in on a church Sunday School class taught by a volunteer from her living room. And it was the the best of the three!
School might be migrating online, which means certifications (and status) will also migrate. But the assumption that prestige, good teaching, and real learning go hand-in-hand is further proving untrue.
Free your learning from the clutches of status.
The best teachers might live next door. Find one.
Talk and Action
[Pandemic - XI]
Deep in crisis is the best time to ask. (Or, we’re finally forced to ask.)
Have our communities of faith shaped people that talk about the future or live the future they desire, in the present?
Have our churches and houses of worship equipped us for thinking about being different or living substantially different lives?
Have our support groups, small groups, theology groups, book groups, and youth groups given us jargon or given us the tools to build a different world?
Talking about religion and faith is easy.
Action is hard!
Crisis has no patience for talk.
Crisis demands action.
Crisis craves real alternatives.
Crisis needs embodied solutions.
Weekly Roundup: Pandemic 2
November 30 - December 4, 2020
Monday: Creation is bringing something new into existence. Manifesting something new in the world. Nurturing something, fashioning something, building something that didn’t formerly exist.
Tuesday: Blaming the pandemic is like blaming the bike for your crash. It takes courage to learn about gravity, and get back on the seat and peddle again tomorrow.
Wednesday: To be embodied and fully feel, learn compassion, care for one another, heal wounds, sit with grief . . . to learn how to be human requires training that is more than a video or online lecture. It requires human contact. And practice.
Thursday: How might we talk about “2020” if we begin planning now how tomorrow will be different?
Friday: Your “I can’t wait ’til” might be a mere frustration or grief, but in it is also the embryonic version of your important solution for the future.
Are you interested in the whole reflection? Click on any day, and it will take you there.
Want to help grow the community of people like us that are unwilling to continue in ways like this? Help us spread the word: share on Facebook, Twitter, or with a friend via email. Find the links below.
I Can’t Wait ‘Til
[Pandemic - X]
“I can’t wait ’til . . .” is a phrase I hear a lot during the pandemic.
It’s short for, “This or that has been taken from me/us, and my patience is growing thin.”
It’s also short for, “We’ve lived without X, and I still see it as essential for my/our wellbeing; I/we need it back!”
It’s a signal for frustration, irritability, and grief. It’s an abbreviation of a long, cathartic release.
But occasionally, it’s a sign of hope. “I can’t wait ’til . . .” is sometimes followed by an emerging solution to a problem, the beginning of a vision for something better, or a seed for change.
In that case the waiting can stop.
Nothing big starts big.
Nothing transformative begins as a massive shift.
Nothing totally new drops from the sky in pure form.
It begins in the stirring heart and mind of someone that “can’t wait ’til”.
Your “I can’t wait ’til” might be a mere frustration or grief, but in it is also the embryonic version of your important solution for the future.
Measuring Pandemic Time
[Pandemic - IX]
2020 has been a terrible year. No need to rattle on about it, as the list of reasons seems endless.
I am intrigued that when I refer to 2020, I am using a measurement of time that is arbitrary (though almost universally accepted). Obviously, I’m referring to the calendric measurement of days between 11:59pm, December 31, 2019 and now.
But that’s like saying that my day has been relatively peaceful so far . . . because it technically began at midnight, and most of the time between then and now I was peacefully sleeping. That’s not accurate. I measure my day by when I wake up.
My day begins when I engage, not at some predetermined time that everyone agrees upon.
How might we talk about “2020” if we merely adjusted how we look at time? Was this “year” terrible if we evaluate it by my intentional engagement?
My day also partially begins as an idea and a plan the night before in the form of setting my alarm. Today really started yesterday when I decided how much time I needed to accomplish the tasks before me and to still allot me enough time to be present with those that need me.
How might we talk about “2020” if we begin planning now how tomorrow will be different?
Training to be Human
[Pandemic - VIII]
We live in a flat world.
It’s global.
It's immediately accessible.
It's all online.
But we also live in neighborhoods. On city blocks and off country roads, where real dogs chase children and real cars lay rubber on the street and real people with real pain struggle.
When we connect to the way-out-there world we risk disconnecting with the right-in-front-of-us world, regardless if out there "feels" like right here.
"Ten ways to garden without weeds."
"How to get the love you want."
"Five reasons wood heat is better than natural gas."
Those are teachings online. They seem close, but are filmed in Cincinnati, New York, and British Columbia. Teaching and learning can happen online, but training is what we need right now. Training on how to be human.
You can't grow vegetables online.
You can't possibly experience the nuances of love through a screen.
You can't experience the warmth of fire through the TV.
Everything we learn about this pandemic happens through a device, but managing the realities of a pandemic are the needs of real people with real flesh and blood, depression and concrete needs.
The difference between teaching and training is more obvious than ever. Teaching can go online. All training cannot. (As a quick example, a nursing degree can never be fully online—while I can learn about suturing over video, I need clinical hours to actually handle a needle.)
To be embodied and fully feel, learn compassion, care for one another, heal wounds, sit with grief . . . to learn how to be human requires training that is more than a video or online lecture. It requires human contact. And practice.
So does growing veggies. And love. And wood heat.
What are you intentionally being trained to do?
Resistance and Bike Riding
[Pandemic - VII]
Please tell me you’ve engaged the work of Steven Pressfield.
The pandemic is horrific. But it’s not the resistance. For all it’s evil (that it is, that it's uncovered, and that it's caused), the pandemic is not the reason you aren’t chipping away at the thing you are called to do.
Resistance is why.
And Resistance comes in many forms.
Procrastination.
Negative self-talk.
Addiction.
Self-sabotage.
Mindless scrolling.
But it's not the pandemic.
Blaming the pandemic is like blaming the bike for your crash. It takes courage to learn about gravity, and get back on the seat and peddle again tomorrow.
Creative Solutions
[Pandemic - VI]
As of today, 260,000 people have died due to COVID-19. That’s horrifying.
One of the wisest people I know said to me, “A problem always has another side, and until you come at it from another angle, you’re blind to the possibility of at least half the solutions.”
The more we consider all this senseless death, the more we ought to consider the "other side".
What’s the backside of death and suffering?
What is the antithesis of dying and decay?
What energy is positive to death’s negative?
What's the inversion of disease and infection?
I don’t believe it’s survival.
It’s creation.
Creation is bringing something new into existence. Manifesting something new in the world. Nurturing something, fashioning something, building something that didn’t formerly exist.
This process is the opposite trajectory of dying and death. It’s the inversion of decay. It’s the antithesis of decomposition.
Create connections.
Create garden beds.
Create new habits.
Create a book idea.
Create a dinner from scratch.
Create a new skill.
Create, create , create.
In the creating, we will find solutions.
Weekly Roundup: Pandemic
November 23 - November 27, 2020
Monday: And, I don’t mean "to mask wear" or "not to mask wear". Wearing masks, while important and life-saving, is the foam on the surface of a sea of other topics we still—still!—avoid discussing openly.
Tuesday: Many of us are waiting for tomorrow as if tomorrow will be on the backside of all our problems. But tomorrow is really the front side of the future that so many of us feared.
Wednesday: Crisis is a terrible time for strategic planning, but it’s a great time for innovation. What tomorrow holds is unknown and yet the problems today are stark and pressing.
Thursday: We will inevitably arrive at both gratitude and a restless need to discover more. And in that "thankful restlessness” we will find all the fuel we need for change.
Friday: Maybe COVID is the stand-in, a target at which we can direct our bigger fear of total system breakdown. Are our systems infected and finally being undeniably exposed?
Are you interested in the whole reflection? Click on any day, and it will take you there.
Want to help grow the community of people like us that are unwilling to continue in ways like this? Help us spread the word: share on Facebook, Twitter, or with a friend via email. Find the links below.
Where’s the Infection?
[Pandemic - V]
Clearly the infection is global. And it’s spiking for the second or third time everywhere.
Clearly the infection is global. And it’s spiking for the second or third time everywhere.
It’s also particular. Real people that we know and love have contracted it, become ill, and suffered.
Where’s the infection? is an easy question to answer. It’s everywhere, and it’s somewhere. There is virtually no wrong answer. But COVID is not the only infection. Perhaps not the worst infection.
Maybe COVID is the stand-in, a target at which we can direct our bigger fear of total system breakdown. Are our systems infected and finally being undeniably exposed?
Is our political system infected with immaturity and self-service?
Is our economy infected with greed and hoarding?
Is our agricultural system infected with poisons and unsustainable practices?
Are our education models infected with a lack of creativity?
Are our social lives infected with online obsessions?
Are our homes infected with a lack of sincere connection and love?
A small target that a few specialists can shoot at is preferable to a big target we are all responsible for hitting.
Fuel for Change
[Pandemic - IV]
Right in the middle of a pandemic. That’s where we are.
Right here. This life. With all its failures, missed opportunities, unfulfilled dreams . . . and viruses.
If you’re like me during this pandemic, you often dream of another life, the one you missed, the one you could have had, the one that so-and-so lives.
The dreaming is like a pressure release valve that keeps my life from exploding. But my dreaming is also the fodder that I gnaw on and therefore never grow hungry enough to change all that needs to change in my own life.
Even in this time of immense frustration, letdown, and grief . . .
. . . if we can drill into the life we have now
. . . if we can excavate it for all that it has to offer now
. . . if we can milk it for all its nourishment and surprise and sweetness now
We will inevitably arrive at both gratitude and a restless need to discover more. And in that "thankful restlessness” we will find all the fuel we need for change.
Profitable of Not
[Pandemic - III]
Crisis is a terrible time for strategic planning, but it’s a great time for innovation. What tomorrow holds is unknown and yet the problems today are stark and pressing.
What’s your idea for solving a pressing problem today?
If we look at this list, we prioritize (and fund) biotech, AI, and a few mundane lifestyle hack items.
What about the realm of emotional stability, health, and human connection?
How about religious gatherings and cause-based initiatives?
Have you thought about justice organizations and compassion efforts?
What about access to healthy food, medicine, and clean water?
In a market economy, profitable innovation is incentivized. It’s part of the unquestioned “logic” of our lives.
But what about a just economy?
A faithful economy?
A empathetic economy?
A fair economy?
We need a new logic. We need your innovative ideas, whether they’re profitable or not.
What if tomorrow is not?
[Pandemic - II]
A vaccine will be here soon.
So will another stimulus package.
And new leadership.
And a different kind of theatrics (that we are probably more comfortable with).
So much is on its way.
Many of us are waiting for tomorrow as if tomorrow will be on the backside of all our problems. But tomorrow is really the front side of the future that so many of us feared.
What if tomorrow is . . .
. . . Nothing like it was yesterday?
. . . Not back to normal, familiar, or comfortable?
. . . Not without paranoia, depression, and anxiety?
. . . Not free from financial instability and job insecurity?
The pandemic has not created something that wasn’t there, but instead, exposed what was there, and accelerated the inevitable.
Will it also accelerate our innovation?
Amplify our convictions?
Magnify our need for each other?
It's our choice.
Talking About It
[Pandemic - I]
As truth-tellers, people like us use whatever public platform we have to say hard things.
That means at a bare minimum we begin talking about the practical, concrete, daily layers of our lives that lead to and encourage real suffering. That also means we talk about the practices we must change immediately to thwart a sequel to the level of instability we currently face.
How did we get here? How do we immediately change moving forward?
And, I don’t mean "to mask wear" or "not to mask wear". Wearing masks, while important and life-saving, is the foam on the surface of a sea of other topics we still—still!—avoid discussing openly.
Talking about mental health is no longer an option.
Talking about physical health and profiting from sickness are no longer an option.
Talking about food systems and diet and immunology are not longer an option.
Talking about climate change, stewardship, and conservation are not longer an option.
Talking about economic imbalance and local economies are no longer an option.
Talking about neighborhood resilience is no longer an option.
Talking about justice, religion, and how they do/don’t line up is no longer an option.
Let’s talk.
Weekly Roundup: YOU, part 2
November 16 - 20, 2020
Monday: Maybe it’s the measurements of legitimacy and success that need to adjust. Not your love for painting. Or gardening.
Tuesday: Consider the question Where did you come from? a compliment. It’s one of the best indicators you’re thinking creatively and knocking on the door of something new.
Wednesday: An older and wiser friend told me once that you know you are comfortable in your own skin if from this day froward nothing changed about you and you still found delight in who’ve you become.
Thursday: Wisdom has perspective. But wisdom also knows the radiant truth found in each and every encounter. Sure, people have been where you are before. But you haven’t! And that’s what makes it unlike anything else.
Friday: Mr. Rogers said, if it’s unacceptable, then it’s unmentionable, and if it’s unmentionable, then it’s unmanageable. By uttering the question, the person asking is becoming part of the problem.
Are you interested in the whole reflection? Click on any day, and it will take you there.
Want to help grow the community of people like us that are unwilling to continue in ways like this? Help us spread the word: share on Facebook, Twitter, or with a friend via email. Find the links below.
“What’s the matter?”
[You - X]
In other words, “Why so discouraged, demoralized, listless?”
Or, “Why so angry, upset , disgruntled?”
Or, “Why so lethargic, lazy, sluggish?”
Sometimes the answer to "What’s the matter?" is simply, “Everything!”
And that’s okay.
By the way, asking the question is a terribly ineffective way to find out what truly is behind someone’s emotional state because “the matter” suggests one’s experience is unacceptable. And as Mr. Rogers said, if it’s unacceptable, then it’s unmentionable, and if it’s unmentionable, then it’s unmanageable. By uttering the question, the person asking is becoming part of the problem.
Friends, while sometimes everything seems to be the matter . . .
You are not.