If there is any bright side to the darkness of our current timeline, it’s that in the destruction of everything, we get to define what comes next.

That is, if we are capable of setting the standard for the future we want. Right now, in the midst of these horrendous things, we should be asking: what kind of life do we want to live? That question in itself is a difficult one. Answering it requires stepping outside of structures we tend to cling to. I’ve been wondering: what kind of future makes everyone more free? What would that look like and what would help us get there?

This quote from Ram Dass popped off recently and triggered a few people:

They were pissed because, in this moment, there’s probably a lot more you or I can do. But to me that’s not the point.

Fuck ICE, protect your neighbors, support your community, but also, deal with your shit. Half to 75% of the reason that we’re here is because people have not been dealing with their shit. And let’s keep it real, me and you have just as much work to do as the next person.

The result of not dealing with our shit is a physical manifestation of moral corrosion caused by people unwilling to examine their feelings for long enough to understand what might be at their root. In the micro, it could be the way you treat people in your life when you are triggered or when you feel insecure. In the macro, it’s the anger we see daily, often directed toward the destruction of others.

We should be involved in our communities, we should vote with our wallets, we should call our representatives, we should carry the phone number of our favorite civil rights attorney. And we should also deal with our shit.

Deal with the things that lead you down paths you don’t like, examine your shadows to figure out why something makes you mad rather than using a distraction or obsession to avoid knowing and understanding yourself. We should be curious about ourselves rather than trying to hide our insecurities or so-called shortcomings.

The pedestal-izing of people has become one of our greatest downfalls. We look to others when the answers are within us. And the point of it all is to find those answers ourselves. This alone would help us define our moral code, and instead we outsource it.

Allowing a lack of investigation into the self to persist has created a vacuum now filled by dictators eager to give us someone to blame. We should be embarrassed we’ve allowed our own thinking to erode so much that we could entertain the brainwashing. But it’s too late, we very much have.

The result is the moral stain we are now processing. It is not unlike the many other moral stains we’ve seen across our history. But as we watch the system fall apart, we get to remake it. The question is, will we be capable of building something better?

If you read The Fire Next Time, you’ll be struck by the fact that it could have been written yesterday. And it makes you wonder: have we learned? At this moment, it feels like we have not.

All we can do now is focus on what we want to create once the remains of what we have are destroyed. There is no saving it. There is only understanding, and writing a better future.

When I was young I had a problem with authority. I remember being a 20-year-old TV news producer and I was a little too militant. My executive producer pulled me aside one day and was like: “Yoooo, what are you doing?!”

Over time I learned that anger is really fear. Fear of rejection or fear that I’ll be met by a lack of love. And I’ve learned that the more I lean into empathy in moments of anger or frustration, the more I can handle meanness, insecurity, or any other shade.

You know those lists of subtle signs someone is wealthy or intelligent? I think being kind is a sign of a gangster. More than that, it’s a sign that a person has endured pain and heartbreak and emerged with grace, and an understanding that we are often more complex than the moment allows. Once again, I agree with Bryan Johnson so much:

Much like the ability to be kind at all times, the ability to have good energy at all times, to spread love, to forgo judgment, to be resilient in the face of a long fucking day filled with small indignities is a sign of true abundance thinking.

Being kind starts with kindness to the self, to see where you’ve been gripping and release. Give yourself grace, and in that grace you make space for the abundance you’ve been waiting for, and unknowingly blocking.

Love you, bye!

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