Get Rid of Your Belly! (There's No Resilience Without Good Health)

How do you envision yourself at age eighty? Do you want to be active, mobile, and of sound mind and body? Or do you think you'll be lucky just to be alive?

Good health is not luck. Yes, luck plays a role, as do genetics and the presence or absence of toxic pollution. But the vast majority of Americans have the health that we ourselves create. What kills us, immobilizes us, and makes us dependent on medication is largely within our control. Indeed, the Center for Disease Control estimates that 80% of heart disease, 80% of strokes, 80% of type II diabetes, and 40% of all cancers are preventable through lifestyle changes. Researchers at UCSF estimate over half of Alzheimer's cases are likely preventable. This is good news! It means we have a good chance of steering clear of them. Even better, it is completely possible to reverse a host of the most common debilitating and/or fatal diseases with just a change of personal habits. Without drugs, medical procedures or much money, you can lessen/eliminate chronic pain, reverse diabetes and heart disease, avoid dementia, steer clear of most cancers, improve your digestion, beat depression, and generally increase your happiness and life satisfaction.

Awaiting rescue

I don’t know if you noticed during the plethora of natural disasters this last summer, but people with poor health and/or poor mobility tend not to fare well when fires/floods/hurricanes strike. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have compassion and evacuate people with poor health/mobility before Mother Nature slaps us around. But it cannot escape the attentive that being dependent on electrically-powered medical equipment or drugs that come via a lengthy, fragile supply chain make one extremely vulnerable should the power go out or the drugs not be delivered. Plus, not being mobile may mean you simply can’t escape quickly enough from fires or floods. (The majority of the victims of northern California's recent fires were senior citizens.) If you anticipate there may be food or energy insecurity in our future, you can bet that medical services will hiccup long before that. Solar panels, orchards, and canned food are all well and good, but good health is absolutely the best investment you can make to prepare for whatever lies ahead. Plus it will make you feel great in the meantime. I mean really great. And if disaster strikes, it will put you in the position of being able to help friends, family and community members instead of being the one who needs help.

My health is good, you may be thinking. Or at least good enough. Well, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. We could examine whether you’re able to walk a couple miles without exhaustion. We could inventory how many medications you’re taking and whether you’d die in short order if you ran out. But let’s look instead at an even better prognosticator of your immediate and long-term health. Let’s look at your waist.

Squeezing the fat doesn't actually eliminate it.

The ratio of waistline to height has been found to be an accurate predictor of current and future health, much better than BMI (Body Mass Index). Go find a tape measure and measure it right now. If you're unsure where it is, measure one inch above your navel. If your waist is more than half of your height, you’ve got visceral abdominal fat wrapped around your organs that is slowly (or not so slowly) working to kill you. This is true even if in terms of pounds you are not considered overweight or obese. Unless you're pregnant, a big belly is bad.

Visceral abdominal fat is much worse than any other fat in your body because this kind of fat functions almost like a gland, secreting hormones, cancer-contributing proteins, and inflammatory biochemicals that will cause you lots of problems. As a result, visceral fat is directly linked to heart disease and type-2 diabetes, and, for women, breast cancer. Because visceral fat influences the production of blood lipids, it's also directly linked to higher levels of bad cholesterol, lower levels of good cholesterol and insulin resistance. It also increases risk of stroke, dementia, depression, arthritis, sleep disorders and cancers of the colon, liver, pancreas, intestines, uterus, gall bladder and kidneys. Don't worry about other body fat. This is the fat you want to go after.

Reach for a Lucky and you'll be toast.

The good news is that reducing your abdominal fat will dramatically decrease your chances of the diseases listed above, especially heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, and diabetes. Heart disease is the number one way Americans die. Cancer is number two. Stroke is number five, Alzheimer's is six, diabetes is seven. One in three US seniors die with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. Forty percent of American adults are diabetic or prediabetic, most of them unaware of their condition. It is far, far easier to prevent these diseases than to cure them. (Many cannot be cured, only managed.) If you can deal with your belly--deal with it now—you will likely avoid much future suffering, not to mention an early death. You’ll also feel way better now. It’s win-win all around.

Tapeworms are not your friend

But how to get rid of visceral fat that causes a big belly? The human body tends toward homeostasis. It has a set point weight it tries to maintain, and it will fight change to the downside. (Unfortunately, it will let you add fat without much resistance.) It will even send you hormonal signals that tell you you’re hungry when you obviously have plenty of fat to burn. What can you change about your life that will not only improve your energy levels, make your immune system more effective, but also jumpstart you body into losing those visceral fat inches?

As you likely know, the United States spends way more per capita on health care than any other country in the world. Sadly, such ruinous spending doesn’t actually give us good health or long life. The US average lifespan is 31^st among nations and dropping. Even worse, our years of healthy life expectancy is 36^th among nations. Growing old doesn't have to entail ill health or disability. The citizens of Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Iceland, France, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Austria on average enjoy good health well into their seventies. Most of these countries also report higher levels of general happiness than the US does. They certainly consume a fraction of the anti-depressants , sleeping pills and opiods. And they spend a fraction of the money that Americans do to produce these superior results.

Old-fashioned pill-popping

I’m going to suggest three lifestyle changes that will significantly increase your odds of making it to the age of 80 not only alive, but with good mobility, of sound mind, and generally feeling good. All three are within your control; none of the three cost much. Even better, the three together will improve your life right now. They'll drop your needs for most drugs; they’ll increase your energy and stamina; they’ll help you sleep better and make you look great. But you’re going to have all sorts of arguments why you can’t do them. You may even think you’d rather live with a decade of debilitating illness and then die before you're old enough to collect social security than do what I’m proposing. Wow, how bad can they be? Read on.

    1) Walk thirty minutes a day. Your lymphatic system is the Rodney Dangerfield of the body. It gets no respect. Most people are unaware it even exists. However, it’s essential to health because it rids the body of toxins and wastes and transports infection-fighting white blood cells around the body. But this is key: unlike your vascular (blood) system, it has no pump. It requires your body’s movement to operate. There is absolutely no way you can be healthy without some form of moderate daily exercise to get this lymph moving around. It doesn’t have to be walking, however brilliant walking is. Bicycling counts. Yoga and tai chi count. So does gardening. So does sweeping, snow shoveling and hanging the laundry to dry. Do more vigorous exercise if you wish on some days, but every day do at least thirty minutes of moderate exercise without fail.

Laxative abuse does not create health.

This may sound simple, but you’d think I was asking people to jump over the moon given the raft of excuses they come up with. If you live in a neighborhood that is dangerous for walking and biking, you live in a neighborhood designed for poor health. Consider moving. (I’m serious. The average American changes residences 11.4 times in his/her lifetime. Next time, make your health a factor in choosing where to live.) Ladies, if you wear shoes that hurt to walk in, get some comfortable ones. Save the high heels for special occasions. (High heels cause an abundance of health problems that will eventually cripple you anyway. Better to be sexy via a slim waist than by permanently damaging your feet, ankles, knees and spine.) If you can’t walk thirty minutes in a row right now, start out at ten and add five minutes each week. You’ll get there. Walking alone will likely not drop all your belly fat, but it will strengthen your bones and leg muscles, prevent varicose veins, improve your lung and oxygen capacity, lift your mood, prevent countless chronic diseases, improve your digestion, and improve your balance and coordination. And it will help you sleep better. It will make a huge impact on how you feel and your general health. 

Empowerment! (blackgirlsrun.com)

The easiest way to fit thirty minutes of walking or biking into your day is to make it a natural part of how you commute or do errands. This is why the very design of America’s car-based society (that ensures nothing is close by and renders walking and biking dangerous) is terrible for American health. But here’s some good news: if you are fit in your fifties, you significantly delay infirmity. This is true even if you weren’t particularly fit earlier. You may eventually get the same chronic conditions as those who were unfit in their fifties, but you’ll get them in the final five years of your life instead of the final 10, 15, or 20 years. You will live much better—happier! active! mobile!--the last 20% of your life. And you don’t have to be super fit, just the regular fitness level that comes from walking thirty minutes a day.

Thirty minutes of daily, moderate exercise cuts your chance of Alzheimer's in half. It is the number one tool to protect your memory and your mind that you have at your disposal. (Here are some others.) You don't want Alzheimer's. Your family doesn't want you to develop Alzheimer's. Trust me on this.

     2)   Sit less than six hours a day. Yes, sitting is the new smoking. Our bodies were built for movement. Is it any surprise that sitting all day in a chair is bad for you? Too much sitting causes your metabolism to slow, your blood circulation to stagnate, less oxygen to be delivered to your brain, and it significantly increases your risk of heart disease, cancer (colon, endometrial, and lung), obesity, type 2 diabetes, muscular infirmity, and depression. It also impedes the functioning of the key enzyme that breaks down fat. Thirty minutes a day of exercise, while imperative for your lymph and circulatory systems, does not counteract the badness of twelve hours of sitting. No matter your age, the combined ill effects of extensive sitting basically double your risk of premature death. If you’re already on your feet all day with your job, you’re probably fine, unless it’s a job that requires you to stand still. (Standing still can give you back aches and varicose veins. We’ll talk about how to solve this in a second.)

Ergonomics!

If you have a desk job, I strongly encourage you to get a standing desk. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. I spent $40 on a stand to put my laptop screen at eye level, another $140 for a keyboard and trackpad separate from my laptop so I can keep my arms perpendicular to my body, and $80 for an anti-fatigue mat that is contoured and keeps my calves activated. (Explanation to follow.) There are also inexpensive standing desk hacks.

Unappreciated

It may seem an oxymoron, but you don’t want to just stand at a standing desk. The key to great health with a standing desk or a standing job is to activate the calf muscles. We all know that our heart pumps blood away from the center of our bodies. However, gravity fights the return of that blood from our legs. That’s why calves are sometimes called the second heart. The activation of our calf muscles is what gets that blood back up to our hearts. When we sit, those calf muscles do next to nothing. When we stand motionless, it’s not much better. However, when we stand it’s not so hard to dance, wiggle, lift up our heels, or walk in place, all of which activates those calves. I find an anti-fatigue mat with bumps and contours promotes calf activation as well. If you want to try a walking treadmill desk ($), go for it. There are many studies that show (and I can verify from personal experience) that standing desks improve neurocognitive function, including memory, focus and alertness. I can attest that I’ve never felt sleepy at my standing desk. And it is far, far easier to keep good posture standing than while sitting if you pay attention to ergonomics when creating your standing desk. If you have neck, arm, hand, shoulder, back or carpal tunnel problems, it’s very possible that poor posture and/or poor ergonomics created them and good posture/ergonomics will help them disappear (as will dropping weight and strengthening your muscles.) Better to eliminate the source of pain than to rely on opioids to get you through the day.

Posture check

In tai chi, there’s a concept called suspended headtop. Think of the top of your head rising up, as if suspended from a string. Relax your shoulders down; don't stick your chest out military style. Bend your knees slightly and keep your weight towards the balls of your feet. Don’t slump, don’t lock out your knees and put all your weight on your heels. (Rocking back on your heels from time to time is fine.) Your butt muscles should be relaxed, not clenched. Your chest should be relaxed enough that you can breathe deep into your belly. Remember not to stand motionless. Shift your weight from foot to foot, lift up your heels, rise up onto your toes, wiggle, and wobble around. Swing your arms from time to time, even walk in place. Sitting down ten minutes here and there is okay, just remember to get back up. (It’s easy to get caught up in something and, before you know it, ninety minutes have passed and you haven’t moved.) If your job absolutely requires you to sit on your butt eight hours a day, I’m sorry to say you have a job that will lead to your infirmity and early death. Do they pay you enough for that? Truly consider a different job or a different line of work. If you can’t quit immediately, then getting up every 30 minutes to stretch and walk around for a minute will help a whole lot.

My favorites

Ladies, standing desks require flat shoes. (Socks and bare feet also work.) I recommend Softstar shoes because I love mine so much, not to mention that Softstar is a great small business that is environmentally conscious and treats their workers well. Wearing “barefoot” style shoes such as these will strengthen your feet, improve your balance and can even reverse a host of foot problems. I buy one pair a year and wear them for everything except running on hard pavement, walking over three miles on concrete, and fancy occasions. At work keep formal shoes in a desk drawer for when you need them.

As for other ways to refrain from sitting: walking meetings work well when you’re meeting with just one other person. If you can talk your employer into it, standing meeting tables are proven to increase productivity and reduce meeting times. At the very least, make a concerted effort to make your screen time standing time.

Screen at eye level

Now don’t try to go from sitting twelve hours a day (American average) to six overnight! Try standing for ten minutes an hour and then adding five minutes a week until you can do 45 minutes at a stretch. The hardest thing is travel. Either in a car or airplane, you’ve got forced butt time. (This is part of the reason truck and cab drivers have some of the worst health in the country.) On public transit you can stand; on a train you can get up and walk. Choose those options when you can.  

Okay. Let’s talk about waistline reduction again. As you walk, exercise, and stand, you’re going to be strengthening your legs. Adding muscle. This is good! However, since muscle is heavier than fat, even if your abdominal fat is vaporizing, your weight may not drop immediately. That’s okay. Weight is not nearly as important as your waist. If you’re replacing visceral fat with leg muscle, you’re doing amazing things for your health. Don’t even step on a scale. Get a tape measure and focus on your belly.

So we move on to lifestyle change number three. This is the one that people say they’d rather die than do. Oh my gosh. Seriously?

           

     3)   Cut out wheat and sugar for six months. (Noooo! I hear you all screaming.) Wheat and sugar are the king and queen of obesity, inflammation and diabetes. Combined with a sedentary lifestyle, they’re almost guaranteed to make you sick, weak and immobile before your time. If you've got problems with belly fat, eliminate all wheat, high fructose corn syrup, and desserts from your diet. Also all added sugars. For six months. I must point out this includes bread. Even whole wheat bread. It includes pasta. Beer. It certainly includes doughnuts. Freaking A, it includes most crackers.

Oh. My. God. The world is going to end.

If you want a detailed explanation of the problems with wheat, read Wheat Belly and Grain Brain. Suffice it to say that wheat has been massively hybridized the last fifty years into a form very different than what has been consumed by human beings the previous ten thousand. But I’m not telling you to give up wheat forever. Get your belly gone, and you can reintroduce wheat and see how it affects you, perhaps trying ancient and heirloom strains that haven’t been so manipulated to produce higher yields, pesticide accommodation, perkier baking properties, etc.

There are all sorts of good reasons to clear wheat and sugars from your diet, including the nasty way they spike your blood sugar, make you insulin resistant, age your skin, make you fat, weaken your bones, and diminish your mental acuity. But let’s put those aside for the moment. I propose you totally clear wheat and added sugars from your diet for the next six months because of homeostasis.

Your body doesn’t like change. Your body doesn’t want to lose its belly. Even with your new regimen of walking thirty minutes a day and sitting less than six hours, it will not say, “Sure, no problem, this belly has got to go.” No sirree. It will fight losing those inches. Cutting wheat and sugar from your food supply will jumpstart the process. It will reduce your high blood sugar levels that directly lead to visceral abdominal fat, not to mention diabetes, cataracts, arthritis, dementia and heart disease. Dropping wheat and sugar will make those fat cells say, “Whoa, what’s going on?” It will tell your body you mean business.

I can tell you that when I hit 50, I was not obese or overweight, but my weight was creeping up. I was running 5K three times a week, I was walking 30 minutes a day, I ate little in the way of sweets or desserts. Still my weight was creeping. Then I cut out wheat. My body made a marked shift; I dropped ten pounds without otherwise changing my diet. My waist dropped two inches. Yes, dropping wheat is that powerful.

But you have to cut the sugar, too, because it’s also nasty bad for you and can fill in for wheat at the drop of a hat. Yes, cutting out wheat means no more office cupcakes. Yes, it means avoiding the center of the grocery store and every beautiful bakery that wants to lure you in with its luscious scents and its big-eyed whole-grained muffins that can’t possibly be bad for you (can they?) Yes, it means forgoing most fast and prepared foods. (This is a feature, not a bug.) If you don't cook, you may have to start. Don’t replace wheat with “gluten free” processed corporate crapola products. They’re mostly made from rice starch, tapioca starch or other starch that is largely nutrition-free. You want the food you put in your mouth to both fill you up and actually have nutrition. (Ahem, this means not gorging yourself on potato chips or tortilla chips either, even if they don't contain wheat.)

Wheat stimulates the appetite. Getting it out of your diet will help you to not be constantly ravenous. Satiate your appetite with good fats—avocados, avocado oil, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, and seeds. (Trans fats are so awful for you that I'm assuming you cut them out of your diet years ago?) You need protein, so throw in modest amounts of pasture-raised dairy and meat. (If you're vegan, you should already well know healthy vegan sources of protein.) And throw in lots and lots of vegetables that will give you the nutrition and micro-nutrients that your body needs and probably hasn’t gotten in years. Go easy on the rice, potatoes and non-wheat grains. Instead of snacking on pretzels and cookies, try carrots, pumpkin seeds or raw cashews. For a quick breakfast, grab a hard-boiled egg rather than a bagel. Trade your lunchtime sandwich for a salad sprinkled with cheese and sunflower seeds. Ever have grated sweet potato sautéed in coconut oil? Delicious!

           

Oh. My. God. You’re saying no pizza and beer. Ever.

First off, there are some wheat-free beers, and there are ways to make wheat-free pizza. And we're just talking six months. Wheat and sugar are addictive; both have properties that cause you to crave them. After a month or so the cravings will die down. I walk by bakeries now and I don’t even want a muffin. But that wasn’t true at first. Once you get your waist to a healthy circumference, then, if you really want, you can reintroduce wheat and see how your body reacts.

If you would rather die early than give up bread for six months, so be it. I’ll just suggest the one bite rule. Sometimes, if you’re craving something--if something looks so good, you might die if you don’t have it--one bite will get you far. Perhaps it’s a beautiful cake that everyone is raving about, ice cream that's magical, or the best biscuit in the history of the universe. Take exactly one bite. Your tastebuds will get most of their gratification (sweetness, texture, flavor.) Same with ice cream. Seriously, one bite gets you 80% of the joy. (Note: this works better for sweet/floury things than salty/oily things.)

This should be obvious, but cut out the soda and the sweet tea. This includes diet soda. (Very nasty for your poor brain, increasing risk of both stroke and dementia.) Hydrate mostly with water from your personal stainless steel water bottle. (Please, oh, please, don't buy bottled water. It's bad for you and bad for the planet.) Once you get rid of added sugars, food with natural sugars will start tasting quite sweet to you. Foods with nutrition, like milk, carrots, snap peas. Some fruit is okay, but don’t gorge on it. Get creative with vegetables instead. If your body is really stubborn about homeostasis and that belly fat won't budge, try switching to zero starch dinners (just protein and vegetables) or even skipping dinner a couple times a week to get over your body's set point inertia.

Let me also point out the foolishness of smoking and/or destroying your liver by drinking too much. It's simply bonkers to work hard on improving your health on the one hand while simultaneously monkey hammering it with drink and cigarettes on the other.

Don't say you don't have the time. It's all about priorities. Many people postpone prioritizing their health until their first heart attack or stroke. Or until they're diagnosed with cancer. Or they need a limb amputated. Then they must focus on nothing but their health for quite a while, with medical interventions that are stressful and unpleasant. How about preventing the heart attack, the stroke, the cancer, the amputation? How about taking action right now so that you can live actively and joyfully from age 60 to age 80? (Possibly even beyond.)

Yes, whatever you do, you might still get unlucky and get clobbered by a texting driver or contract a debilitating disease there was no way to prevent. But why not give yourself the best odds possible? Follow these three steps (that might seem impossible but really aren’t) and you will ignite your immune system and increase your strength and stamina. You’ll fire up your metabolism, reduce your current and future need for medications, get rid of your belly, and save both you and the nation oodles in future health care expense. You will feel energized, creative, and powerful not only when your belly’s gone, but as it’s going. Don’t choose death, disease and suffering due to the siren calls of sugar, wheat and your easy chair. However old you are, whatever shape you’re in, turn your health around. You can do it.

Note: this is not medical advice. I’m not a doctor! I just read the research and studies and tell you what I’ve experienced myself. I receive no remuneration for any products I recommend. I share things that have worked for me and that I like. Indeed this entire article benefits me in almost no way whatsoever except for the fact that if you’re a sane, non-evil person, and you improve your health, the world I inhabit gets a little better.

The Importance of Not Being Miserable (About the Fate of the Planet or Anything Else)

Antidote? Vaccine?

If you’re reading this article it’s likely there’s much going on in the world to make you feel anxious, depressed, angry, frustrated, even downright miserable. Climate change is serious; the Paris accord is only a small step in the right direction even if the US government didn’t want to pull out of it. Depending on how much of a doomer you are, you may perceive that one to seven billion people are on deck to die an early, unpleasant death over the next hundred years due to human fecklessness now. Wealth inequality has skyrocketed in the United States; our federal government grows ever more corrupted by big money; and people of all stripes are conditioned into a simultaneous state of passivity and anxiety through television, social media, drugs, poor diet, poor health, and a culture that defines human worth through status and consumption. Nearly half of all animal species are at risk of extinction by mid-century; the entire biosphere of Earth, the lovely planet that is our home, is being threatened by unnecessary laziness, selfishness, stupidity, and greed. On top of all this, you may feel the current US political system is in such a shambles that it no longer has the ability to address problems, only a perverse faculty to create more.

If you stew on all this, the outlook is bleak indeed. (Please consider the possibility that the current political circus is designed to make us feel anxious and impotent.) I’m not going to tell you none of the above is untrue, that the dire predictions now floating in the blogosphere won’t come to pass. I can only say we can’t know at this point how it will all play out, that life is full of surprises, that history is rife with unexpected twists and turns. But I will tell you that even if depression, anger and anxiety are understandable responses to the predicaments at hand, you should give such emotional states a wide berth. **You are too important to squander your energy being miserable.** Indeed, even if you don’t have hope, you owe it to yourself to lead a contented, useful life. Let me explain.

Worth a read

Stress kills. Depression kills. Despair kills. Sometimes quickly through suicide or a drug overdose, but more often slowly, as the hormones these emotional states trigger hammer at your kidneys, your liver, your heart, your immune system, and your digestive system as well as make you more sensitive to pain and prone to insomnia. It may feel as if despair drains your energy, leaving you sapped, but that’s because you’re directing your life force down a black sinkhole that is an appalling repository for your vitality. That sinkhole will never return lost hours and days back to you. It will never do anyone (or any biosphere) one lick of good.

On an airplane, you’re told in case of emergency to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. Why? Because if you pass out, not only will you be of no use to anyone, others will have to freak out assisting you. This is not to say ignoring reality is a good idea. It’s not to say that your emotions and your reason are not picking up good data on the current state of affairs, and that these affairs aren’t worthy of your attention. A certain level of worry and alarm are useful if your house is burning down.But no one can live long under the stress of constantly escaping a fire. Problems unlikely to be resolved in a short period of time must be approached with a degree of equanimity that will allow you to still thrive and enjoy your life.

Early zippiness

Yes, enjoy. No matter what the circumstances, you deserve to enjoy your life. Okay, if you’re a murderer, sadist, or swindler, maybe you deserve to enjoy life a whole lot less, but my guess is those aren’t your sins. In any event, we are all on a hero’s/heroine’s journey; we all get to be the central character as we write the book of our lives. Between our birth and our death are a chain of moments. These moments are all we get. We owe it to no one, not even the unborn future generations who are counting on us, to squander them in misery, rage, depression, and frustration.

Misery, rage, depression and frustration not only make us sick, they often spiral into self-hatred. They might prompt us to turn to alcohol or drugs (or porn or mindless TV or shopping or gambling) to blot the pain they cause. And (except, perhaps, in tiny, tiny amounts) they don’t help us constructively address the predicaments we face.

In love

This doesn’t mean we should all stop caring about others and the fate of our planet. It doesn’t mean we should stop worrying and learn to love the bomb. It means each of us has to get to a mental/emotional place where we can focus our attention without relying on a constant lash of anxiety for motivation. It means nurturing and strengthening our spirits so we can encompass the sad and the difficult and yet still see the joy and the beauty. The Chinese, from the ancients to modern-day, speak of cultivating their chi, their life force. To do the work ahead, each of us will need patience, clarity and strength. Each of us will need to tap into the deep well of our life force that we have zero access to if thunderstorms of misery always rage around us.

There are a multitude of ways to nurture spirit. The most important is the one Americans neglect the most: body movement. Simple walking is an extremely effective method of countering depression, anxiety and stress, as good or better than any drug, even better if it’s done out in nature. If you find yourself angry, anxious, or hopeless you simply must carve out thirty minutes a day to walk somewhere you enjoy. Do it before or after work, during lunch, maybe even as part of your commute. (Bicycle commuters report high levels of happiness and well-being, if that’s an option for you. You might think not, but it probably is.) If you enjoy more vigorous exercise, do that. Our bodies, especially our lymphatic systems, require movement in order to function properly. You simply cannot be healthy and be sedentary. Exercise also releases endorphins and other brain chemicals that give a fundamental, natural (!) sense of well-being. Maybe a few saints here and there are able to rise above physical discomfort to achieve spiritual heights but most of us must attend to our bodies in order to attend to our spirit. Walk or bike or get some other form of exercise every day. Do it. It works.

Next, cut out the sugar. Seriously. Sugar is addictive, wigs you out, and makes equanimity elusive. And it’s everywhere, in all sorts of food products you might not realize. (Read ingredient labels!) The average American eats 130 pounds of added sugars a year. This is nuts. Sugar makes your organs fat, it primes your body for diabetes, it makes heart attacks and strokes more likely, it creates tense blood vessels that lead to high blood pressure, it overloads and damages your liver, it increases your hunger level that leads to overeating, it ages your skin, it feeds cancer cells, it increases your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, it can make you anxious and irritable, and it gives you a 40% higher risk of developing depression. However, sugar can reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the blood, which may be why some people drown their sorrows in quarts of ice cream. (This is why you need to come up with healthy ways to manage stress.) Don’t replace sugar with artificial sweeteners; they’re also terrible for your body. Recalibrate your palate and body instead. After a few days without added sugars, natural sugars will suddenly register on your tongue again. This article outlines a pretty good plan over a course of two months that will clean up your diet. Or you could go cold turkey with no sugar for three days, reset your taste buds, then add some foods back in. If you want to feel really good and lose weight, cut wheat out of your diet, too, especially in highly-processed crapola foods, but start with sugar first, especially sugar/corn syrup in beverages. (Please consider the possibility, whether intentionally designed this way or not, that a food supply that leaves you sickly and obese is a food supply that renders you passive, dependent and impotent.)

Many ways to be merry . . .

Next, be careful with alcohol and drugs. I’m not saying zero, but no using either for pain relief or self-medication. Without moderation, both can affect your health; both can get in the way of finding the deep equanimity that is in you. In particular, heavy alcohol use makes you fat, messes up your liver, messes with your sleep, and if you're depressed, leads to more depression. For those of you who are young, remember, what you do to your body before you’re thirty you’ll feel after you’re thirty.

Curb your news addiction. News reporting wants to attract your attention via tragedies, problems and threats of problems. Much of it is repetitive, voyeuristic and manipulative, not to mention mostly noise, not signal, designed to distract you and make you feel anxious. The time you spend pouring over the details of mass shootings, Senate subcommittee hearings, and special prosecutors is time not spent on your health, your family, your friends, your work, your real life. It's time not spent on the real things you can actually do to solve the problems we face. I'm not suggesting burying your head in the sand, but view news as a toxic substance you must ingest in small doses--say no more than half an hour a day. Note the info but don't stew or obsess about things you can't or won't change. (It's useless and makes you useless.) Conserve your attention and energy for what you actually can and want to impact. I personally read my news rather than see or hear it. It's faster, less repetitive, and it's easier that way for me to check multiple sources to note multiple viewpoints.

Get enough sleep, however much your body needs in order to feel alert and healthy. Sleep is more important than Facebook, it’s more important than TV. Turn media minutes into sleep minutes until you’re routinely getting enough rest.

Consider trying meditation, tai chi, yoga, dance, and/or immersion in the natural world. All these are helpful for some people. A simple walk among trees (“tree bathing”) is a proven stress reliever for many. Acupuncture can also address anxiety and depression. I strongly encourage you to check and see if any of these tried and true techniques (that are inexpensive, with no nasty side effects) work for you.

Of course you may have your own path to equanimity. What lifts your spirit? Brainstorm a list. Singing in a choir? Creating art? Gardening? Fishing? Brunch with friends? Woodworking? Listening to opera? Going to church? Staring at the ocean? Gazing at the stars? Reading a story to your grandchild? This list is not a frivolous exercise. What nourishes you, what replenishes you? What you come up with is part of the essential task you are put on this world to do. I know it’s especially hard for parents of young children to find time, but not nurturing your spirit is like not putting on your oxygen mask. You will dry out into a husk of a human being who is no good to anyone. Pay attention to your spirit. Feed it. That’s an order.

So why am I writing this? What is it to me if you spend your day raging at corporations or shaking your head glumly at inane tweets?

No man is an island

The answer is we are all connected. On a planetary biosphere level, obviously. (Pollution and carbon travel.) On an economic level. (Goods and services travel.) On a political level. (Refugees and terrorism travel.) Even, Jung would say, on a subconscious level. However tempting it is to think otherwise, how we treat the planet, other people and other nations boomerangs back on us in a very basic way. Others’ suffering not only diminishes us, it destabilizes the country and the world. Though America loves to see itself as a collection of rugged individualists, It’s a Wonderful Life, with its interconnected small town of Bedford Falls that George Bailey’s modest life is able to impact for the better, is a much more accurate model.

This basic interconnection means I benefit if I live among healthy, vibrant, creative, energetic, ethical people, so I deeply want that state of being for you. Beyond that, if you’re a person who gets that the human race needs to live in balance with the biosphere of its host planet, it’s even more essential that you don’t squander your life in gloom and doom. That you have the equanimity and energy to do what you can to alleviate future suffering, to preserve what still can be preserved, to repair what can be repaired, leading an enjoyable, contented life all the while. 

Pick a problem, any problem, to work on. There are plenty to choose from. Don’t fret, don’t endlessly rant about it; instead, give it a portion of your productive energy, your steadfast attention, your commitment. Yes, the future might play out badly just the same, but not trying due to despair or pessimism is the greater error. If the worst ends up happening, that’s even more reason to live the moments you have left as well as you can. Not deliriously happy, perhaps, but at peace. Not in an alcohol or chemical-induced stupor that makes you forget the clouds above, but with a wider vision that helps you see the storms as they travel, the seasons as they pass. Find a way of being that makes you whole, makes you strong. Then use that strength with as much compassion, integrity and fortitude as you know how. That’s my wish for you. That’s my wish for us all.

Note: If you have severe depression, severe anxiety, or frequent suicidal thoughts, humanity and the planet still need you. Try the suggestions above, but also get help from someone with the skills to address your level of problem.

Helping Others Eschew Oil (How to Make Your Life Less Oily in 2017, Part IV)

Part I:  Taking Stock

Part II: Squeezing Oil Out of Your Travel

Part III: Wringing Oil from Your Beverages, Food, Stuff, andHeat

Part IV: Helping Others Eschew Oil

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller

So you’re working on reducing your own oil use but maybe you’re downhearted. Maybe you figure, why bother? I’m just an oily drop in an oily nation. What does it matter if I cut my own oil use if everyone around me wallows in the stuff?

First off I would argue that each of us has to do what’s right because it’s right. If I don’t want to support fracking, polluting, stonings, and beheadings, I have to stop abetting ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia through my oil use.

But never fear, there are many ways to also influence others to reduce their oil use. You won’t impact everyone, but you can do your part to nudge/cajole/enjoin American society towards a less oily future.

Swat those pesky facts

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Americans are curiously fact-resistant, especially when it comes to anything concerning the environment, the climate or the economy. We might lament the current state of human intellect, but it’s always been the case that most people don’t find data and factoids nearly as persuasive as emotion. Trial lawyers know this, preachers know this, con men know it, and though it frustrates the engineer in me to no end, the novelist in me is not surprised. It’s part of the business of being human. Now, I know you are persuaded by facts. You love a good fact for breakfast and dine on three more at lunch. After all, here you are reading a post about energy, sustainability and climate, proof that facts have already reached you. I have no doubt you were one of the three kids paying attention in your eighth grade science class, too. But we have the other twenty-seven to consider.

Emotions! Bah, you say! You want to read how to help others eschew oil, not some namby-pamby squishiness about feelings. Wait! Don’t click away! If we can’t reach someone through facts, emotions may very well be the ticket, but in a different way than you might think. In order to convert to an oil-light life, most people will need to believe that such a life will bring them status and pleasure. You might think that health and happiness would be enough, but remarkably neither are as psychologically powerful. Below we'll look at sixteen ways to help others eschew oil, some aiming at status and pleasure, others political or practical. Let's begin.

(Credit: Josef Beery)

1.) Walk the talk. You cannot expect others to do what you won’t do yourself. Model oil use reduction. In Gandhian fashion, exemplify the change you wish to see in the world. And let it transform you. Yes, initially people may see your new habits as crazy, pointless, etc., but as your life gets better and better—you gain health, you save money, your personal life satisfaction grows, you become pleasantly grounded in your neighborhood and community, slowly your friends and family will take notice. So walk, bike or take transit to places others think impossible. (This isn’t hard: most Americans think walking half a mile impossible.) Arrive invigorated with your trusty stainless steel water bottle, full of amusing stories of your adventures along the way. Sate your hungry ghost. Clear out your excess stuff. Replace the plastic in your house with fewer but more beautiful things. Celebrate local goods and foods. Give them as gifts, and when you have guests to dinner or when you bring food to other homes, point out the tasty, high quality local food the meal contains. (Bonus points for food you grow in your yard.) Through your vitality and obvious satisfaction, you’ll show rather than tell how a life with less oil can be better than one saturated in it.

2.) Become a roving ambassador for walking. Thirty years ago I read that the best way to improve your neighborhood is to walk around the block. I think this still holds as good advice. Walking not only puts eyes on the street and creates social cohesion through interactions between neighbors, it’s the best way to encourage others to walk. So walk. Don’t be afraid to be noticed. Being seen is the point. Realize that everyone likes to be approved of and admired, even by complete strangers, so approve and admire away. Smile and say hello to the people you pass. Chortle about what a fine day it is. Make eye contact and nod at other pedestrians like you’re both members of the Grand Secret Walking Club. Offer praise, simple encouragement (you don’t have to go overboard) or just beaming glances of approval. Do yourself a favor and get a pair of attractive yet highly comfortable walking shoes. And dress well! Athletic gear is okay for a morning power walk, but we’ll never raise the cachet of walking if it only looks appropriate for people in t-shirts and sweatpants. You could wear a hat and carry a natty walking stick, but that’s not required. If you’re up for it, you could do a David Sedaris and pick up litter. (You might even get a garbage truck named after you.) Use a wire handcart to walk groceries or other goods home to show it can be done. Lead community walks if that happens where you live. Tell store owners you walked to get there. (They’ll assume you drove.) Your job is to raise the status of walking, to encourage those who don’t walk to try it, and to help those who do walk to find it so enjoyable they’ll do more of it.

Day view

3.) Pamper your local pedestrians. Adopt a stretch of sidewalk and make it a place pedestrians feel happier walking through. As I described in Building Community One Bench at a Time, we put a decorated bench in front of our house. We also strung up solar-powered light strings to make our stretch of sidewalk friendlier at night. Since then I’ve also started sweeping 75 feet of sidewalk belonging to three sets of neighbors. Why, you ask? My neighbors live up a whole bunch of stairs and can’t keep their compost bins at street level. I have a garage at street level and so can more easily discard sweepings. For years I was annoyed that they didn’t keep their sidewalk clear and pedestrians had to trudge through leaves, branches and litter to get by. Now I just sweep it. It takes about twenty extra minutes a week and the sidewalk looks much, much better. I challenge you to choose a stretch of sidewalk beyond your own to sweep or keep snow-free. You’ll be helping out not only a neighbor but also our planet. If you have the space, plant flowers or lovely shade trees along your sidewalk, put in garden gnomes, stone lions, whatever might interest or amuse pedestrians as they pass. Walking naturally feels good, but you can make it that much better.

Night view

4.) Become a roving ambassador for bicycling. First off, if you’re a serious bicyclist with an awesome road bike you’ve spent major bucks on that is fantastic for hundred mile rides, good for you. But you also need a town bike, one suitable for leisurely, conspicuous, happy bicycling. For this assignment, being duded up in Lycra hunched over your handlebars while barreling along at 30 mph just won’t do. I recommend an upright bike because it shows your face, which, of course, will be beaming due to just how much fun it is to casually bike around town. People like to look at faces, so you’ll attract more attention, which is the point. Make your bike festive! I have a wicker basket decorated with silk flowers. I get lots of compliments; however, I didn’t put on the basket for compliments but rather to make bicycling look as appealing as possible. Guys might not be wild about flowers, but a tweed-style approach to bike riding is always eye-catching. Women, don’t be afraid to wear fashionable clothes while cycling. Looking stylish while pedaling very much raises the status of biking, and it’s easier to ride a bike in heels than to walk in them. (My husband and I ride our bikes to the ballet and the symphony.) Cargo bikes and box bikes can be great fun to decorate (involve the family!), and every single bicycle can benefit from festive lights at night. (I love the Monkey Lights on both my bikes but there are many sparkly, twinkly options.) Festive lights are not only safer, they attract attention in a positive way. On a bike it’s easy to strike up conversations with other bicyclists and pedestrians at intersections. Be cordial, be genial. Give out compliments; help the people biking around you feel great about what they’re doing. If you have a kid-toting cargo bike, be sure to regularly park it in a conspicuous place in front of your kids’ school and chat up anyone who asks about it.

My about-town bike

5.) Change the story. As we discussed in Part III, the average American gets a phenomenal amount of brainwashing (aka advertising) persuading them that cars make them powerful, sexy, and free when actually most of their time in a car is spent in traffic stressed, alone, and unhappy. The story most Americans have running in their heads about bicyclists and pedestrians is that they must be poor and stupid (so pity them) because anyone with money and sense has a car. It’s the American way. So your job is to convey with every stride and pedal stroke that not only do walking and bicycling save you money, not only do walking and bicycling improve your health, walking and bicycling are highly pleasurable. It’s the people in cars--getting more stressed, obese and diabetic by the hour--who should be pitied. Now I know there are days when you think, “Walking and bicycling would be bliss if it weren’t for all these crapola drivers trying to run me over.” However true this may be, if you’re going to change the walking/biking story, harassed fearfulness is not the sentiment to convey. You want your body language to exude the joy of walking, the fun of bicycling. You want to express that this is one the best parts of your day. Beam, smile, emote. That’s your focus, that’s your mission.

Storytelling

Now don’t expect instant change--we’re trying to alter the collective unconscious here. Most likely your joie de vivre will intrigue some people and give those waffling on the edge permission to give walking or biking a try. If you want to be a roving ambassador for transit, go for it, but depending on how well your local transit system works, it may be harder to convey great happiness about it. (Train buffs, on the other hand, have no problem waxing euphoric about riding the rails.) At least don’t trash talk your local transit. Instead, offer encouragement/admiration/ positive reinforcement to those friends and family members who take transit. Always be respectful, kind and polite to your fellow passengers on transit and act as if you approve of and admire them. The psychological field you radiate can actually make others around you feel calmer and more content.

Live, die and even be buried in your car.

6.) Combat American car culture. Car culture in the US has long been bonkers. Maybe our love affair with the auto has dimmed a little since the fifties when we ate cheeseburgers and saw movies in our cars, but we still congratulate people when they get a new car almost as much as when they have a baby. And getting a driver’s license is still a rite of passage almost as important as graduating high school. This is nuts! To counter this, never admire a car and do not congratulate anyone on buying a new car ever. You don’t have to say, “Gee, the value must have dropped $4000 when you rolled it off the lot.” Just don’t say anything. Instead, compliment people on their spiffy bikes, their awesome water bottles, or how nice their sidewalk always looks. When teens you know get to driving age, chat with their parents about how much safer it is for kids these days to take Uber/Lyft (or transit or protected bike lanes if you have them), how it really cuts down on teen traffic fatalities, the number one cause of teen deaths. Enough said.

7.) Gifts. If you give gifts at holidays and birthdays make them count! Every dollar you spend has influence. Certainly give non-oily/non-plastic presents, but if you can also help your loved ones eschew oil, why not? At this point my family knows my eccentricities (and hopefully forgives them), but I have been known to give LED bulbs, low-flow showerheads, and stainless steel water bottles as Christmas presents. I am absolutely not kidding. (With kids I’m less dogmatic and usually give non-plastic things on their wishlists.) Next year, I swear, I’m going big with wool dryer balls. If you can’t think of anything your friends and family would appreciate, try consumables (preferably local food) that at least don’t add to their pile of stuff. You could also give gift memberships to a local CSA, bikeshare, or carshare. Strategically support with your gifts any interests or inclinations your friends and family have already shown in reducing their oil use. 

8.) Holiday Gatherings. Get there by non-automotive means if possible. Bring local food in your non-plastic dish to share. After the meal go on a walk (so good for the digestion) and invite/prod/cajole others into coming with you. Make it fun, a great opportunity for pleasure and adventure. (See flowers! Birds! The sunset! Stars!)

Helpful hint: it’s quite possible to walk and bike at a leisurely pace without sweating. But if you’re prone to sweat, bring a shirt to change into or invest in some merino wool t-shirts and wear them as a base layer. They’re marvelous at absorbing both sweat and stink. Truly, you’ve got to try it to believe it.

Guerilla plumbers strike again!

9.) Make walking/biking safer. Support daylighting, the removal of one parking space just before crosswalks. It makes pedestrians much more visible to car drivers, and makes it easier for pedestrians to see if a car is really going to stop for them. In addition, speed kills. Support lowering speed limits on residential streets to 20 mph ("Twenty is plenty") and adding speed humps to enforce this speed. The main reason people give for not riding bicycles is safety. The underlying emotional reasons are the fear and stress that come from biking next to cars. Support protected bike lanes that create a peaceful, stress-free biking experience even if it requires giving up parking or a lane of traffic. If you really feel gung ho, you could do some guerilla bike lane creation, using plungers to mark off protected territory like a group did in Wichita.

Don't be evil

10.) If you must drive, drive peaceably. I live in San Francisco where half the people drive responsibly, another third are texting, and the rest are freaking maniacs. This shows up in the high number of pedestrian/bicyclist fatalities we have caused by inattentive, speeding drivers. Where you live, drivers may be calmer. (I hope so!) Still, most people justify speeding and rolling through stops because “everybody does it.” So don’t be that everybody. All cars have blind spots, and pedestrians and bicyclists make mistakes. At every single stop sign and every time you turn before you proceed make absolutely sure you’re not about to run somebody over. When you get to intersections busy with pedestrians, slow down rather than blast through. Follow the speed limit however much it pisses off the car behind you. Never double-park in a bike lane. (So evil!) And never, ever honk at a bicyclist just to tell them “you’re there.”

11.) Advocate for electric buses, electric shuttles, and electric trains. Now that electric bus technology has advanced to the point where range is not a problem, write to corporations like Google, EBay, Genetech and Apple that use corporate internal combustion buses and ask them to use electric ones instead. These companies are rich and can easily afford it. If you ride to work on a corporate bus, you should especially make your voice heard. If company buses routinely pass down your street (like they do mine) politely request of those companies to switch to electric models made by American companies such as Proterra so as to reduce the noise, vibrations and particulate matter that internal combustion buses inflict on your neighborhood. If your employer uses any kind of shuttle, these too could easily be replaced with electric ones. Though the initial cost of an electric bus or shuttle is higher than an internal combustion equivalent, because of reduced maintenance and fuel costs, they are actually cheaper to operate over the life of the vehicle. Many cities are now using electric transit buses, reducing the toxic levels of pollution they are dousing their citizens with. Yours could too. And vigorously support electrified trains everywhere. In a few years we’ll all be extremely grateful for every single mile of electrified rail we have in this country. (Oil glut or not, peak oil and falling oil EROEI are still with us, folks.)

12.) Ask for drinking fountains and water bottle refill stations in public areas. Drinking fountains used to be a common public amenity, and they can save each taxpayer hundreds of dollars a year in oily bottled water costs. Public access to drinking water is not an unreasonable request.

13.) Support biking/walking/street safety programs, weekend street closures, as well as congestion charges/HOV lanes, etc.  This is the traditional approach to helping others eschew oil, and all of it is certainly worth doing. Participate in or otherwise support bike to work days, walk to work days, walk/bike to school days, safe routes to school, Vision Zero, Summer Streets, Sunday Streets, etc. Get upset whenever a bicyclist or pedestrian dies in a traffic crash. These are not accidents. They are almost always the result of poor driver behavior or poor street design. Street design that properly protects pedestrians and bicyclists saves lives and encourages non-automotive transportation. The Netherlands has the most bicycling per capita in the world, no one wears helmets, and yet they have almost no bicyclist fatalities and very few injuries. What they do have are careful drivers and excellent bicycle infrastructure.

14.) Be a YIMBY. Say Yes in My Backyard. Support accessory dwelling units, such as granny flats, in your neighborhood. Support infill development of multistory residential over office space or ground floor retail, especially if it will replace car infrastructure such as parking lots, parking garages, automotive repair shops, gas stations and car dealerships. Support adding density especially when it allows new residents to live in ten-minute neighborhoods (see Part II).

Ditch the SUV

15.) Be an early adopter. If/when bikeshare, carshare or scootershare programs start up in your town, sign up even if you’re unlikely to use them extensively. They usually don’t cost much and could use extra support the first year to get them off the ground. If new light rail starts up near you, make a point of at least trying it out. And if you can afford it, get one of an explosion of new models of electrified cargo bikes available these days. They’re a blast to ride and really can replace your car for the lion’s share of errands. The more of these on your streets, the more likely others are to get one too.

16.) Advocate for sidewalks. Sidewalks are the most basic way to make our lives less oily. Unless you live extremely rural, your neighborhood should have them. If it doesn’t, petition or advocate for them. Your town/community might feel they’re expensive, but if paid for over ten to thirty years (completely valid for capital improvements) they’re not all that much. The cost of not having them is far higher.

Okay, at this point you may be saying this woman is batshit crazy. We’re never going to get the world off oil in these tiny, incremental ways. We need big action, on a federal level, and that is completely not going to happen anytime in the next four years. All is doomed, the arctic permafrost is going to melt releasing a methane climate bomb, and human extinction (as well as extinction of a large portion of the animal world) is next up on the agenda.

Massive carbon absorber

I’m sorry but this line of thought is both untrue and will freeze you into passivity like a deer in existential headlights. We human beings haven’t even tried to truly deal with climate change yet, not in any kind of concerted way. There’s still time; there’s still hope. There’s still time to cut our energy use in half, largely through electrification and efficiency. There’s still time to prudently use natural gas as a bridge fuel while we build out renewables. Massive amounts of carbon can be still sequestered through biochar, reforestation, wetland restoration, regenerated grasslands, and regenerative agriculture. World population can slowly ebb by educating girls and giving women access to contraception. Yes, all this must be done on a scale we humans are nowhere near to approaching, but what’s necessary is not beyond our reach, have we but the will. The issue at hand is entirely human culture, which in turn is entirely a creation of our collective minds.

Not the best choice.

But (you might say) we don’t have a functioning collective mind! Our politics are insane and brainless! We are Thelma and Louise, driving off the cliff!

Seriously, if the human race drives off a cliff without making any real effort to deal with the problems that we ourselves have created, then we deserve extinction. Take comfort in that.

Physics lesson

I am not so hopeless. Let me leave you with an image. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a museum about art, science and human perception, before it moved to the Embarcadero (let me complain about the loss of the old museum and how, like all good San Franciscans, I hate change in my venerable institutions like cats hate rain) there was an exhibit called the Resonant Pendulum. It featured a massive hunk of concrete and metal weighing in at 350 lbs as it hung from the rafters of the Palace of Fine Arts. Imagine its bulk in front of you. You are given the challenge to get the pendulum moving, but you can’t touch it. Your only tools are a bunch of pathetic little wires with puny magnets at the end of them. You throw the magnet at the metal on the pendulum and it sticks, but when you pull with any force, it pops right off. Schoolchildren flitting by are indignant. Moving this colossal pendulum with such teensy implements is impossible. A complete waste of time.

But. But. If you throw your puny little wire with its puny little magnet at the pendulum and five or ten others do also, and if you pull just a little bit, not enough for the magnet to detach, and if those on the other side pull just a little bit on their puny magnet when the pendulum shifts almost imperceptibly in their direction, then slowly, slowly, the massive weight begins to move. Slowly, slowly, if tenacious children and inquisitive adults pull in time to reinforce the pendulum’s natural frequency, the humongous object begins to swing. Slowly, slowly it really begins to swing. And all of the sudden it’s making a huge arc across the floor.

Though there are all sorts of physics lessons here, there are many more about what is possible, how it is possible, and when it is possible. Timing, weight, cooperation. Magnificent.

Perhaps the moment will come when it’s appropriate to despair, but that time is not yet. The enormous pendulum of human culture can still be moved if we are but wise enough to coax it.

Be the puny magnet. Change the emotion, change the story, change our culture. It’s a worthy endeavor.