One Small Act to Stand Up for Your Values
Keep talking, keep thinking...
In the 90’s I was a typical teenager living in an era of peacetime and prosperity in Northern California. My days more less consisted of playing tennis, watching MTV, and chatting on a cordless phone with my friends. Here I am in the good old days with my cordless phone having a conversation about who knows what…probably how MTV stopped playing music videos…
Despite my privileged complacency, I would still marvel at the stories I would hear about the civil rights movement, war protests, and women’s marches from my parent’s generation. I would think about Cesar Chavez and his quest for workers’ rights as we’d drive by the fields and see farm workers hunched over picking strawberries on our way to the beach. I would think about my grandma who was widowed as a young woman with four children and had to petition to have her own credit line until the law was changed in 1974. And I was completely captivated by one local woman just a few years older than me, Julia Butterfly, who at the time was living in a 1,500-year-old Redwood tree named Luna to protect it from the lumber company. She ended up living in that tree for 738 days and eventually won her battle to save Luna. Here she is with Luna…
It was an optimistic time and I would wonder to myself what it must feel like to care SO much that you take to the streets or live in a tree for two years for the cause you care about. Because thanks to generations before me and people like Julia Butterfly, 18-year-old me had relative privilege, freedom, and beautiful, protected ancient trees. I had not a care in the world.
Fast forward 30 years and I no longer wonder how it feels to care so much. I instead wonder where those rights I took for granted in my youth are heading. Are our civil liberties endangered? Are the hard-fought rights of working families, women, LGBQT friends, immigrants, and the environment at risk? Is the basic rule of law even a thing? 2025 doesn’t feel quite as optimistic and a lot of good people are asking what can be done. It is certainly overwhelming, so here is one tip to start small.
One Small Act: Have More Real-Life Conversations
With everything going on in the world recently I am constantly reminded of a simple truth: we must be the change we wish to see in the world. One act, one conversation at a time. You don’t have to march the streets or live in a tree (but you can), but as the author of the prescient 2016 book, What We Do Now, Standing Up for Your Values in Trump’s America, writes,
“one of the most important things we can all do as Americans is to invest in relationships and get to know our neighbors and community.”
In another book, The Laws of Connection, science writer David Robson cites study after study that show how having simple real-life conversations and connections can not only improve our lives, but create changes in society.
The next time you feel anxious and frustrated (today), do this: turn off the news, close your computer, and get outside and talk with a friend or neighbor. If you can walk and talk at the same time, even better! If you can’t meet in person, pick up the phone. The point is, connect IRL as much as possible. People together are a powerful force.
Thank you for reading! Wishing you a peaceful, creative, and Kaizen week ahead. If you enjoyed this post please subscribe to keep me motivated to keep writing and creating, every Saturday in 2025!