What does it mean to practice change-making in a time when change is everywhere? It used to be that change was viewed in contrast to stability or stasis. The status-quo was once seen as this benign, awkward, and troublesome state we sought to affect through innovation.
In 2022, the status quo is ongoing change. The world, as we’re seeing, is on fire. Few things promote change like fire.
So what does it mean to change when almost everything feels like it’s changing if it’s not already changing itself?
That question got me thinking again about what it means to engage in innovation and change-making right now. That is what got me writing this - whatever this is — again.
A Matter of Language
Which gets me to the first order of business: What is this? A newsletter? A blog? A website? A memoir? The fact that Substack is all or some of these in various combinations is perhaps a perfect metaphor for so much going on at the moment.
We are in states where the traditional titles and roles don’t fit much. We also don’t have any replacements for them, either. So, like any description of Substack, I’m struggling for words.
Language issues go beyond things like newsletter/blog/website formats but into things like what it means to be in a climate crisis. The first isn’t important; the second is vital to our survival. The same can be said about terms like recovery and well-being.
The title of this post reflects three terms that all have some degree of contention associated with them, but all reflect my sense of things right now. There’s never been such a need for rest — real, genuine rest. Not just staying in and watching a show at home or sleeping an extra hour here and there. Rest is about turning down and turning off.
It’s near impossible to do when our phones/devices connect us to everything, and tuning out one thing is nearly impossible. It’s what makes social media and technology so difficult: we have something useful and relevant situated next to something harmful and toxic. In many cases, we have little choice in what we get.
A re-start is something I see everywhere. My clients are hoping to re-start. I’m re-starting things I’d left alone (like this). All of these are done with the hope that we can return or create some semblance of normalcy in our lives. With COVID, the economy, and as the wildfires rage on and temperatures rise, ‘normal’ becomes increasingly unlikely.
Revolution is where my mind is now. What’s strange is that this term isn’t even as radical as it once was. Upending how we work, relate, consume (and conserve), and life is now necessary — which doesn’t feel very revolutionary. Revolution is upending the status quo for something different. Right now, the status quo in so many areas of our lives — work, home, community — seems destined to be upended even if we don’t do anything.
We’re fast approaching what Eddie Izzard calls Cake or Death. And no, we can’t just have the chicken.
Thanks for reading. It’s good to be back. Let the revolution begin.
Cameron
Photo by Pierre Herman on Unsplash