It's Not You, It's the World

how to preserve your humanity

I wonder if the arc of civilization is trending away from humans, that we’re creating a world that isn’t conducive to being human. Being a robot, yes, but maybe not so much fragile, quirky us.

We aren’t designed to spend half our lives staring at smartphones, to endlessly parse disinformation, to fend off the chaos and cruelty of fascists, to see children being bombed and starved to death.

We certainly aren’t built to make a living in a system designed for billionaires to become even richer so they can send their penis rockets into space for eleven minutes as a publicity stunt.

Or as Don Lemon wrote, “Every headline, every ‘breaking news’ alert, it takes a little piece of you. Until you’re not just reading the story—you’re holding it. Carrying it in your body. Waking up tired before the day has even begun.”

But because I write a newsletter entitled It’s Not Too Late and I’m an annoying optimist and a tad puglistic, I insist on fighting back.

a photo from years ago, that tutns out to be of a mural on the Highline created by the French artist JR, thanks to Stitch Witch Pam for that info

I insist on asking, passionately, how do we preserve our humanity?

This isn’t about self-care or giving up social media or taking more deep breaths; it’s far bigger than that.

It’s about staying human to preserve the world we love.

To resist fascism that is trying to kill everything and everyone we love.

Because if we lose our humanity, all the people and creatures and ecosystems surrounding us go down, too.

But how do we stay human?

Of course, that answer is going to be unique to each of us, a combo of attitude, beliefs, rituals, resistance, and community we each find and stand in, and for.

Here is what I’ve been trying.

• To notice how and when our humanness is being chipped away and ask myself, “What would a good animal do here?” and try to do it.

• To gather together with other humans and laugh as much as possible. To resist the urge to isolate, a big one for me.

• To slice through the fog of gaslighting with facts. If you think, “I don’t know what is real anymore or what to believe,” search out credible sources. It’s not hard.

• And yes, Pollyanna that I am (a Pollyanna with a potty mouth), it feels vital to maintain our dignity, and each other’s, whether that’s with simple manners, tiny acts of kindness, and a refusal, above all, to make anyone “the other.”

• To remember we are embodied creatures. I had the pleasure of meeting a client and his family recently when we were both in Moab, and I had the best conversation with his young sons about how good it is to be in person, how much they missed that during the pandemic. I was so aware of being so happy eating ice cream on a Saturday with someone I had worked with for months, and meeting his people. This embodied piece feels essential to staying human.

• To search out wonder and awe because these states remind us of the vastness beyond our small selves, that we are part of something we cannot understand. Starry nights, red rock canyons, baby feet, it’s all around us.

This is a slim list, a bare scratch of the surface of what we can do. I’m sure you have excellent suggestions of how you’re staying human. Please comment with how you stay human. I’d love to hear.

Thank you for reading and for being human.

Love,

Jen