2022 The Year of Caring
How will we move into the New Year?
We can hope for a better tomorrow, a more sustainable way of living, more equitable use of resources, a more caring, sharing, giving society. We can hope for change in our relationship with the earth, nature, all life. We can hope to stay clear of Covid, and other dangers.
But where we have the most leverage is to move to, to live in, a society where others, even those we do not personally know, care. A society or community of mutual caring; a trust that there are people who will care deeply if someone is not safe, healthy, happy.
Can we as a community come up with breakthrough ideas for a wholesome life no matter the challenging context or conditions, in the New Year of 2022? Here are some ideas that I think are worth implementing or discussing related to caring for ourselves, each other, and caring for the earth.
How will we make connections and have conversations in 2022? What will we do to grow societal and communal trust?
Help to fill the isolation gap of today's adolescents (and perhaps other age groups as well). Bring back adult voices, mentorship, and peer companionship. Early on, guide a child on a nature walk, introduce them to one of the arts, fly a kite with them, read together, and discuss the readings… One day of such an investment may well reap dividends for a lifetime.
Start a Bakery and Cafe Conversation shop in Jericho. Think Paris in Jericho.
Bring civics to the forefront. How do other countries (Chile for example) operate? What admirable elements do their (in Chile’s case, evolving) constitutions contain? Would such a study change our views of our own society as a result? What alternative economic and social order might we imagine and what would it be like?
Does our constitution lend itself to minority rule more than majority rule? How do we want to define democracy given our understanding of society today? What does a system of government shaped by every citizen having the right to a vote of equal value, look like?
Join or tune in to a town committee or select-board meeting.
Need help with something? Ask your town folks and neighbors for help. Our communities are full of talented, caring, kind people willing to share their skills and talents with others.
Create a Google doc; join a community group to write a story (fiction or non-fiction) together. What will your theme, topic, message, or plot be?
Write a personal story or recount an event or experience to share with the community. (I would be happy to post it on the Jericho Community blog).
How might we help protect our natural world and at the same time become closer to it?
Adopt a wild bird, mammal, or insect species. Observe wildlife in your backyard. Find out what is there, and when, what they eat, where they nest, what their life cycle is like. Find the joy in discovering LIFE going on in your yard. Share with others including taking photographs of the species and posting your observations on iNaturalist.
Organize a back-to-nature walk to explore, observe, identify, plants at a local park or woodland. Sit down with a half-eaten pine cone, or a scouring rush, or a spring ephemeral and ask each member to comment on what they see. Discuss why each plant observed grows the way it does, or how an animal goes about eating it, why it flowers when it does, what species pollinate it… Utilize slow and still and micro observations to heighten your experiences and senses.
“We won’t see the magnitude of our ignorance, of our excitement, or of the useful knowledge embedded in the living environment until we set out to explore all of it.” ~E.O. Wilson (Entomologist, Biologist)
Beyond the fascinating insect photos on iNaturalist, there are the colorful flowers (that the insects land on for their photo) which are a special joy to view during these barren white winter months.
Get Wild this winter with iNaturalist, eBird, and VT Center for Ecostudies. https://vtstateparks.blogspot.com/2021/12/get-wild-this-winter-with-inaturalist.html
Start a Ten by Ten movement: Replace a 10x10 foot section of lawn with native wildflowers, and or shrubs/trees. Enjoy the diversity of plants and pollinators they attract. Speak out (and donate) for the conservation and preservation of what little agricultural land there is left in our communities. How can we place more attention on land management to care for the land, be stewards of the land, instead of only extracting from the earth?
Become an active member in a Jericho/Underhill Plant for Pollinators Society (a community of aspirants, goals group, to discuss strategy on how to promote and engage in pollinator plantings). Perhaps meet every 6 weeks for 1.5hrs to talk, plan, exchange ideas, formulate plans of action.
Over the last few years, I have shared some of the ways we (in our yard) are working to improve the soil, grow more nutrient-dense vegetables, increase the percentage of native plants in our yard, reduce our lawn size, and create a bird, insect, and wildlife sanctuary as well as trying new ideas like building a hugelkultur. Will you share with us how you are bringing nature home?
As seen on Twitter source unknown, "Aren't you terrified of what 2022 could be like?" Everything is so messed up..." "I think it will bring flowers." "YES? WHY?" "Because I'm planting flowers."
Will we as a society ever come to value free time over things as a measure of wealth?
Buy less and live more. Determine an experience you would enjoy that would replace a thing you might otherwise purchase. Consider using slow in the activity: Think slow birding, slow walking in the woods or your backyard. Sit or lay down to watch the stars, enjoy a sunset picnic, search for four-leaf clovers, eye the frost formations on plants and on window panes.…
Open up a tool, appliance, phone, and computer, repair shop. Help reduce our single-use or short-lived product life practices. Open up a garden tool lending shop perhaps in conjunction with the library.
Exchange goods/resources within the community before buying new and before trashing an item.
Health Tip: Switch out CFL for halogen light bulbs. CFLs contain hazardous mercury; hardware stores accept the CFLs for safe disposal.
Is it a time to re-discover the pleasures that can be found in experiences and activities close to home? Perhaps that which is most elusive is but illusionary, while that which flies in our face, crawls at our feet, grows in a garden, simmers in a stew pot; that which is carried in a long quiet warm hug, perhaps that which surround us in everyday life, are keys to an unopened chest of pleasure, treasures of simplicity, if only we allow ourselves to see and experience them. How can we become more alert to these opportunities? For each of us individually, life often becomes what we perceive and what we focus upon.
Will we focus as much on appreciation as on dislocation?
As a fireman on a long night, with temperatures reaching well below zero degrees, my gear iced over creating a unibody, my hands, nearly frostbit, were practically immobile. Yet what I vividly recall, more than the cold, is the feeling of warmth (accompanied by stinging shock) and appreciation of a Salvation Army volunteer pulling my gloves off for me and holding my hands to thaw and warm them. To this day I relish in appreciation of that gesture.
Looking within ourselves and our communities: renewed efforts at dialogue.
If our environment has an effect on who we are, how we behave, this current environment truly is testing us. The less we feel in control, the more challenging it is to be consistent in our character. In 2022 who shall we test out to be? What social norms will survive? Perhaps more importantly, which will evolve? Will we hold hope to return to what we know as normal, or will we envision new ways of living, explore them, and embrace fundamental changes?
Is it too simplistic to think that as adults we can still have that childhood interest in snowflakes, slippery ice, bright moonlit nights, building a snowman, sledding, skating, playing outdoors until our fingertips and lips turn blue, eating hot cookies, sipping hot chocolate, observing and asking why and how, a thousand times over being forever curious about all forms of life, and laughing at the silliest things, making music with spoons, sticks, old cans, finding joy in nearly everything outdoors in nature?
And what of our self-identity? Can we use our differences for the betterment of each of us instead of exaggerating or magnifying our differences against each other? Frans De Wall* writes, "...the initial animosity between divergent approaches can be overcome if we realize that each has something to offer that the other lacks." Can a community be defined to include people unlike each other, people seeking shared use of resources, not necessarily known to each other, not all of the same persuasion but all together for each other? And if so, what are the practical workings of such a community?
I sense, experience, and witness ‘mutual caring’ and kind behaviors in the community!
Might we increase our ability to reason, and converse in reasoned, rational, and empirical debate in a respectful tone, to gain societal consensus - as opposed to relying on laws, and therein the not-so-subtle threat of punishment and loss of freedom?
We are aware that certain forms of projected behavior might have troublesome results. - Roland Anderson et al. (2002)
Without the opportunity and use of reasoned debate on an inclusive scale, do we not forfeit individual freedoms to a degree in which makes fertile ground for those in 'power' (and those with narrow views) to take rule?
Indeed, there is a relationship between a refusal of arbitrary power and inclusive political and reasoned debate.
According to Katherine Hayhoe, Christian climate scientist, "We use moral judgment to make up our minds and then use our brains to find reasons that explain why we’re right. There’s no way to separate the emotional from the logical". Does this help us understand how we make decisions?
After reflecting and discussing a topic, do we make decisions based on calculations of cost-benefit, individual as well as community impact, or possible impact to others? Do we reflect on the relationship of the decision to our values and what we consider ourselves to be as individuals and as distinct groups?
"The western settler mindset was "I have rights." The mindset of ingenious people is "I have obligations." - Stan Rushworth, Cherokee elder
Are we a product of our environment or is our environment a product of who we are? Disruption seems to abound, change inevitable; can we only imagine retaining the status quo, can we only hope for a return to “normal”? Or can we utilize the tectonic shifts to break the ice of customs, habits, cultural traditions that no longer serve us and who we are as human beings?
A group of folks came by to view our non-traditional yard of pathways twisting through a diverse array of plants. One expressed to us “Thank You, you have given me ‘permission’ to do this (less lawn to mow, less weeding, more natural nature-friendly landscape in my yard)”. Breakthroughs can come from re-examining axioms*.
* For the times do, in fact, change. They change relentlessly. Inevitably. Inventively. And as they change, they set into bright relief not only outmoded honorifics and hunting horns, but silver summoners and mother-of-pearl opera glasses and all manner of carefully crafted things [including manicured pedigreed monoculture lawns,] that have outlived their usefulness. - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
These meandering thoughts are partly based on my readings, my perceptions, and my attempt to look beyond what is, and what went wrong. To properly stir the mix, to allow breakthrough ideas to float to the top, we need many voices, many creative thinkers discussing and debating ways to break some of the molds and create new trends.
What are your ideas for being caring and kind to the earth, nature, yourself, and your fellow community members? How will you remain well? What really makes you happy? How will we empathetically take care of each other? How will you vibrantly embrace, experience, and taste life in 2022?
Hoping you laugh, dream, try and do good in the New Year
~Bernie
See reader comments below.
I am recycling last year's photo so just add one to the number! What was your favorite moment of 2021?
If philosophical explorations are not your taste, then let us agree that to reach someplace one must be able to visualize that place, either as it is or as one would like it to be. - Bernie
(I think Maeve's community post below is a good example of reasoned and persuasive dialogue. - Bernie)
Who Benefits When We Wear a Mask?
As posted on FPF by Maeve K., Jericho
I was going to stay out of the FPF mask debate because I'm not sure it isn't more divisive than helpful. However, I think there's something vitally important that hasn't been said yet to those in our area who don't want to wear a mask. Your individual freedom is a wonderful thing, to be celebrated and loved. But the next time you're in a store without a mask on, the next time you're standing outdoors maskless and get within a few feet of another person, take a good look at that other person. See that robust-looking fellow in the store? His young wife at home just finished a course of therapy for leukemia. She has no immune system at all. She and her husband know that even if he's triple-vaccinated and feels absolutely great, he could carry the COVID virus to her. It might not kill her, but it could set back her recovery a full year or more. - See those two little girls, giggling as they follow their mother around? The mask on one of them is tipped sideways, exposing part of her mouth. She's too young to have had any vaccine yet. Try to imagine her in an ICU bed, unable to breathe and terrified. - See that guy by the meat counter? He has only part of a lung after suffering an injury in Afghanistan. Even a "mild breakthrough case" of COVID would probably kill him. - See that woman with a cane? She just turned 85. She loves life and she's not ready to leave it. - We wear masks to protect ourselves, yes. But we also wear them to protect those who are more vulnerable than we are. Thank you.
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Readers Comments
I've thought about this too. It seems that humans get into real trouble when we resort to "us" vs "them" and give in to the ease of "group-think". That always leads to hate and/or abuse seems to me.
I think one solution is to hold onto your personal humanity no matter what others do or say and to recognize that each and every human is interesting and valuable. To see people as individuals and smile and make eye contact with whomever you meet and, if possible, find out something about them. We all want to know we matter...I think that is how we can make things a little better along the way.
~ S.S. Jericho
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PostScript from Bernie
Though fear and anxiety are understandable in today's environment, we need not be stuck in isolation and change-resistant bunkers. Will you utilize my essay as a catalyst to express your views and ideas, with your moral compass, to describe your imaginative roadmap to 2022 and beyond? Admittedly I often can’t see the forest for the trees. I invite you to accept my invitation with alacrity; with your help and insight perhaps we can all see our way forward more clearly.
Cheers as we find our (new) way in 2022
Bernie
* Frans De Wall author of "Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?
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Further postscript 1/15/222
FPF posting by Bernie
My response to those who email me with a different view (on the masking) is that I hope as a community we all care for each other even when we do not agree, that we probably agree on many things and that it is important that we all can describe our positions - why and how we got to them. I think this dialogue in the public realm can help build social consensus, release and deflate some built-up angst, and encourage folks to abide by social well-being measures that protect and care for the community as well as for the individual.
I am no debater, nor speaker, but I do yearn for what I read was a culture in the indigenous society (or at least many of them in NA) whereby the community spent a great deal of time discussing community affairs every day. As I understand, they put great practice and exercise into eloquent and powered reasoned arguments and debate.
There was a relationship between their refusal of arbitrary power and inclusive political and reasoned debate.
I hope we (society) will all learn such a valuable cultural skillset (engage in self-conscious reasoned debate). No compulsion, but social adherence created thru reasoned debate, persuasive arguments, and the establishment of social consensus. In addition, a society of communities that have a system of mutual aid, equality, minimal conflict, and who celebrate each other's differences.
We all have the capacity to care for and be committed to all folks in our community.
I again invite folks to read my posting "Make 2022 the year of caring - Conscious reflection of our societal behavior and options for change" (I have revised and updated based on feedback). I hope this can be a stimulus for further discussion of how we can improve community dialogue, and lower animosity between divergent approaches and opinions.
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2021/12/2022-year-of-caring.html
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