What could possibly go right?
Perhaps like me, you now feel that things have been increasingly chaotic for so long that you’ve dropped your hope that they’ll settle down anytime soon. If so, how can we make the best of a life that’s ever more uncertain and uncontrollable?
When easy questions, like ‘Now what?’, no longer give us useful answers, it’s time to try questions that may look foolish: for example, where are the upsides in all this turbulence? What if the suffering and nastiness in our world today is pushing us towards a better future?
Please note, I am not writing this in a spirit of confident hope: my default mood these days is alarm and vulnerability, but I refuse to abandon hope! We know that hope, faith, and meaning are vital to human wellbeing, and maybe this blog offers some clues for the journey.
You may recall that the Chinese use the same ideogram for problem and opportunity: so crises of the current scale might have hefty upsides. Here are some of my hopes:
- Local communities become essential: whilst many people have doomsday fears about major crises, the evidence tells us that emergencies create cooperation and generosity: see more in the excellent book Lifehouse. The covid pandemic was a positive example of communities coming together: ideally we need stronger connections and infrastructure before the next big crisis. For more of my resources on Community Resilience, click here.
- Got to get back to the land: It’s worth listening to the song Woodstock: it’s a touching, inspiring reminder of idealism from 1969, in the teeth of the horrendous US war in Vietnam. It includes the lines “Got to get back to the land, and set my soul free”. Amid the ever-rising human chaos, deepening our connection with Nature, despite her suffering, can nourish our roots, joy, sense of steadiness. And we need to get back to the land in a practical sense:
- Love your food, grow your food: shortages of food are highly likely, see more here, but there are upsides. It may help us to value what we eat, and to eat more sustainably: 70% of UK farmland is used for meat production and animal feed. It may push us to grow more ourselves, which is both practical and calming. Another upside could be a renaissance in smallish-scale, labour-intensive, agro-ecological food growing: perhaps in eco-hamlets?
- Repeating the upsides of World War 2: Like any war, it was horrendous, but it brought many benefits too. It greatly reduced income inequality in the UK, US and elsewhere. Rationing meant relatively fair sharing of food, fuel and other resources, and we may need it reintroduced. There was a determination to build a better society after the nightmare (think Welfare State, council houses and more), and we need that kind of big thinking again. Much of the post-war progress arose from good groundwork during the war, and we need that kind of foresight right now! These views are echoed in the recent National Emergency Briefing.
- Growing into soul resilience: I see this as a vital part of resilience generally. It means connection with a power and purpose which transcend our own needs and personality. You can find resources to explore this at my website: www.soulresilience.net: for example, try Climate anxiety: learning to inhabit it. One way this approach can help you is to believe that your soul chose a life in these chaotic times, and ‘all’ you need to do is figure out your reason for being here, and fulfil it!
- Surrender and pray: Many spiritual teachings urge us to recognise that we don’t control our lives, and we need to surrender and rest into divine love. Surrender doesn’t mean passive abdication: it’s the humility to know that we’re not in control. Prayer can help us get beyond a sense of isolation, especially if we’re praying for peace and healing for others, not just our own needs. Surely the current state of the world invites us in this direction.
- Join hands: This world currently is overwhelming if we face it alone. We need fellowship with others, for both emotional and practical support. This may be more than the folks next door are up for, but reach out to people you know locally who also see this need.
- Grow your own resilience: It’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed in all this uncertainty, but it’s better to empower yourself, and see where you still have some agency: this includes not only the power to surrender and pray, but the capacity to strengthen your resilience. Check out the new Personal Resilience section of my Seeding our Future website, and my guide to The 9 Dimensions of Super Resilience.
Let’s give the last word to the great Sufi poet Rumi. Thirteenth-century Persia was just as chaotic as our times, and his wisdom still sparkles:
A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot
where it’s being boiled.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
The cook knocks him down with the ladle.
“Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavour,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.
Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
“Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can’t do this by myself.”