Making the Most ... The Bigger Story


It's safe to say that we need a corrective. A realignment. 

We all have a sense of "I don't think this is the best way to live."  We feel it individually and collectively.  As an individual I don't really live according to my values and interests.  As a collective, we know that life isn't really sustainable.  It's not even enjoyable often.  We can do better.  But we're so busy moving that we don't know how to stop and refocus.

Several years ago I participated in a triathlon.  Participated is the key word - I have the ribbon to prove it. 

I'm a good runner, a decent cyclist, and a terrible swimmer.  The interesting part was that, for the race, we swam in a lake.  And in a lake you have no idea what direction you're going.

All the training for the swim was in a pool.  In a pool there are handy lane markers to keep you straight, and nice lines on the bottom of the pool to follow.  It's literally impossible to lose your way.  But in the lake, there are no lane markers, and no lines on the bottom.  I don't know what was on the bottom - the water was too murky to see anything.  I did a practice swim the night before the race.  After swimming for a few minutes I stopped to look up ... and discovered I was swimming in a big circle.  Completely misdirected.  I realized my biggest challenge would be to make sure I kept going in the right direction.  I was so bad at swimming that I couldn't afford to make it any farther than it had to be!  There were two tricks:  The first was to pick landmarks to my side, like a group of trees, and look at them every time I took a breath.  Then, every 50 strokes or so, I had to pause, lift my head, find out what direction I was actually going, and realign my course. 

It's time to pause, look around, and see if we're going in the right direction.  And make correction.

We're in a unique moment.  We're all forced to make a pause.  While we're waiting, let's look around, and see if we want to change direction.  Here are some possible ideas.

I value productivity and possessions more than people.  Before my first trip to Cuba someone told me, "In Canada we value things; in Cuba they value people."  I found that true.  Cubans live in physical poverty but social richness.  Generally, we chase wealth, possessions, and positions. 

I have a friend who looks after his grandmother.  She's 81.  Literally, that's all he does, he looks after her.  He doesn't have a regular job.  He doesn't go out very often.  He cooks for her, cleans the house, and they watch videos on YouTube together.  Part of me thinks, "What a waste, what else could he be doing?"  But I realize that I haven't talked with my grandmother in months.  People are what's important in his life; something else is important in mine.

  • We're disconnected from God and the spiritual world.  
  • We don't spend enough time outside.
  • Our lives are either too busy or we spend our time meaninglessly.  Has there ever been such a mind sucking selection of TV shows before?
  • We have unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression.  Feel free to respond with your theory why.
  • Family lives are rush, rush, rush.  We spend less time eating together - McDonald's in the minivan doesn't count - less time playing cards and board games and projects together.
  • Raising children has become project management.

When we emerge from this Social Distancing experiment, some things will have shifted.  Some will settle back into old patterns, some shifts will be permanent.  Today Amazon announced they are hiring 100,000 workers.  The entire economy is on standstill, but Amazon is hiring.  We're all shopping from home.  I suspect part of this will be a permanent shift - and we'll shop on line even more than before.  Disaster preparedness will explode - both in the global economy, and personally.  (Will we ever risk running out of toilet paper again?)  Working from home may become more common, and Skip the Dishes.  And who knows where air travel will settle in a year?

In the same way, I hope we change our values, our routines, our habits change.  But only if we stop, look around, and see what we need to change.  How we need to be different.

What do you think?  Where do you need a corrective in your life?


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