Empowerment
I can’t prevent devastating storms, keep my local grocery store from selling out of my favorite product, or make someone else behave in a way that is more convenient for my preferences. These are issues over which I have little or no control.
When our desires slam into the reality of our situational impotence, it can stoke feelings of insufficiency, fragility, and worthlessness.
We might feel like stepping back from life a little bit, because what’s the point? Bad things happen, we can’t stop them from happening, so why even flail around, wasting our time and energy on things we have no chance of changing?
This is an understandable response, and we’re all vulnerable to a sense of futility resulting from either a cold assessment of an out-of-scale issue, or an effort that fails to result in our hoped-for outcomes.
It’s worth remembering, though, that even if we can’t control the weather, we can adjust the thermostat. Or failing that, we can don or doff our unseasonable clothing.
The global food system may be suffering under the weight of a thousand systemic afflictions and imperfections, but that doesn’t prevent us from making adjustments to our own shopping and eating habits, based on the resources we have available and the goals we hope to achieve.
Human rights and democratic values are under fire from a thousand different directions, on a scale we’ll be struggling with for generations. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t vote, shouldn’t support causes we believe in, and shouldn’t make positive changes to our discourse and community-level structures whenever we see the opportunity to do so.
An inclination toward assuming personal helplessness is seductive.
It allows us feel that—because many of the issues we face are too big for any one of us to tackle—there’s no point in concerning ourselves with the things we might improve.
That we as singular human beings cannot solve all the world’s problems does not mean we cannot solve any problems.
The fact that we are not all-powerful does not mean we aren’t powerful.
Our effective domains are not as big as we might prefer, and the leverage we wield, as individuals, may not be sufficient to make all the changes we hope to see in the world.
But we can make changes in our own lives. We can make changes in the lives of our friends, families, and communities.
And we can add our modest strength to that of our peers to accomplish whatever we decide to accomplish; provided we can muster the will to do so.
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If you found some value in this essay, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee.
If you’re fortunate to have the power to do so, please do leverage your individual-scale right to vote, which allows you to influence—even if just a tiny bit—society-scale issues. For US voters: know your voting rights.
Projects
This week on Brain Lenses I published an essay about Multitasking and a podcast episode about Okrent’s Law.
This week’s episode of Let’s Know Things is about Mass Pardons.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things:
Roland 808303 Studio(an online instrument that’s a lot of fun to play)
Documentary Mania(gobs of free documentaries to stream)
Lesser-Known Inventions of Famous Inventors(a neat read)
Grocery Shopping on the Internet(archive video from 1996)
The Last Cassette Tape Factory(interesting, short video)
Typelit.io(practice your typing skills using classic literature)
For more interesting things of this kind, pop over to Curiosity Gadget.
About two years ago I was visiting my folks in Missouri before heading out on a year-long speaking tour. They got me a cake and decorated it with a Cars toy, painted to look like the RV I would be full-timing in during the tour, and deployed the cake during a nice dinner with some friends. I can’t wait to get back on the road and do some more speaking, but I suspect I’ll be cocooning for a while longer—until it’s safe to get back out in the world and share some words, ideas, and hugs.
Outro
In between my usual, weekly project-related tasks, I’m learning React Native (a programming framework) in an effort to create app-versions of a few things I’ve been fiddling around with in the background.
I’m still at the very early stages, but it’s been a fun process thus far, and I always enjoy learning about unfamiliar broadcasting/publishing tools.
I’ve also been reworking my exercise routine to account for a strained chest muscle (or maybe inflamed rib-to-sternum connective tissue? Waiting to hear back on the specifics)—so if you have any good non-chest-strenuous, upper-body workouts to recommend, I’d love to hear about them.
Foam roller stretches and tips would also be appreciated: I bought one recently and can’t seem to figure out how to fit it into my routine.
What’s life look like from your point of view, at the moment?
I’m thinking about publishing another, periodic missive with responses to that question (and others), to provide a sense of how folks from around the world, living different lives and seeing things from different angles, are doing, right now.
It would be similar to what I’ve published within this newsletter, previously, but separate so that the “Community” section would be its own email, probably sent sometime over the weekend.
Would you be interested in such a thing? And if so, would you be willing to tell me a bit about how things are going in your world, these days?
Either way, consider sending me a message (for sharing, or just between you and me) about what you’ve been up to, what you’re thinking about, and maybe something about yourself, if you’re feeling it. I respond to every email I receive and would love to hear from you :)
You can say hi by responding directly to this newsletter or sending an email to colin@exilelifestyle.com.
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I’m also available via the usual social mechanisms: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and nuances in post-war concrete texture.
If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work by becoming a patron of my writing or Let’s Know Things, buying one of my books, or subscribing to Brain Lenses. You can also keep it simple and buy me a coffee.