Month: June 2020

In the 1930s, economist John Keynes predicted that with the evolution of technology and production his grandchildren would only be working 15-hours per week.

So why is it that we spend (interesting word spend) 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, for 40+ years?

When are we to realize the flaw in this system.

There is a reason that mental health continues to rise. That amidst all of the progress we have made in medicine, technology, the internet, with food, clean water, shelter…we still is missing something.

That feeling of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. That feeling gives us purpose. It makes us feel larger than life and boosts us to dive deeper into hard, emotional work.

Where did it go wrong? 40 years of deregulation with a great recession and now a global pandemic hasn’t helped us going forward.

The 40-year slog isn’t about getting to the finish line and THEN we can start enjoying life.

Life begins each day, make it count.

HT John Keynes

Scott McCloud points out in his brilliant book, Understanding Comics, that all the action happens in between the panels.

Social media works the same way.

All we see is a glimpse, one point of view, and nothing in between. That space is left for our imagination.

Which isn’t a bad thing except when we let our fears and biases in the driver’s seat. Anxiety kicks in and we automatically go to the worst-case scenario.

Our imagination struggles to see other points of view different from ours because…

We fear what we can’t imagine.

In 1963, eight white clergymen in Birmingham published a letter called the “A Call for Unity” which essentially asked outsiders to stay away and for protestors to resume negotiations.

Protesting is never meant with open arms. Even non-violent ones. They are never convenient because they call for the status quo to change and for people in power to share it.

After Dr. King was hauled away to jail, he responded to these clergymen with a letter that is now known as the Letters from Birmingham Jail.

Here is the audio. Thank you for your words.

It is the idea that we assume our profession is inherently good, even sacred, and is therefore above criticism.

In other words, we are talking about pride.

Pride keeps us from seeing the hidden biases and prejudices in the system we have built.

Pride keeps us from seeing the harm we cause others.

Teachers, ministers, librarians, government officials, running a non-profit, and yes, law enforcement…

No calling is above justice.

The more tightly we hold on to this label that “I am a good person” then we are less likely to examine how we cause harm to others.

That doesn’t mean we need to shame ourselves but rather accept that each of us is a work in progress.

It’s easy to see the flaws of others, to tell ourselves a story that makes us feel better. We need to remember, people are more than just a list of good things and the bad things we see.

Everyone wants to be the hero in their story. The problem is how quickly we are to cast those around us as a villain.

We are being inundated with a never-ending stream of what’s going on around the world.

The problem is the news we think we are participating in is now turning into gossip.

Headlines designed to be clickbait, knowing that we are not going to read the articles but skim it.

It’s a formula now and it’s poisoning the well to receive valuable information.

We think we are staying informed is by being in the know but there is too much information for anyone of us to stay on top of.

The irony is, the less we consume the better we feel. 10 minutes a day is enough to be informed. Any more and we are just amplifying a voice in our head.

It’s implied that the next step we always think about is forward.

We don’t talk about going backwards because we can’t go that way.

Time is linear.

And so, we behave in a linear manner.

Time is also consistent.

People?

Not so much.

What were to happen if the next step we take was deliberate. Deliberate in how we deliver equality or beauty or art. Deliberate in how we raise the status of those we seek to serve.

What were to happen if we consistently delivered on this promise?

We wouldn’t have to fear change if we knew the next step was towards something better.

It is estimated that every second 75 McDonald’s hamburgers are sold.

You can get an idea of how enormous that is by clicking on a burger counter here.

Since 1994, McDonald’s quit posting how many burgers sold. Why? Because they were moving so fast, they missed the 100 billion mark.

Today, it is estimated they have sold over 400 billion hamburgers.

Someday soon it will be a trillion.

The question is, do we want to live in a world where someone could serve a trillion burgers? At what cost?

To be clear, selling a trillion of anything is a miracle. It is a miracle that we can be talking about producing and distributing 7 billion COVID-19 vaccines.  That is what the industrial revolution has done.

Yet…

We know the problems and challenges we face. The environmental tolls for shipping across the world. Supply chains going haywire these last few months. (The US while facing a shortage in masks were still shipping them to other countries in March.)

It’s a tug-o-war that shall continue: How do we grow from here? Because the current way we measure won’t continue to work in the future.

Did you know that The Great Depression produced giant companies like General Electric, Hewlett Packer and Disney?

The Great Recession paved the way for opening and sharing networks. As a result, Airbnb, Uber, Venmo, Slack all emerged.

So what about Coronavirus? What is to come from it?

Less than ideal conditions force us to be creative, to think outside the box.

Problems create solutions.

However, when we sit with tension while the other person speaks, not thinking about what to say next, not interrupting the speaker, is how we find a connection.