Build bridges, not walls
“if you want to go fast, go alone,
if you want to far, go together”
“Build the wall”. Parochial thinking I’d expect from an old man. It’s about keeping others ‘out’. The thinking is “we can go it all alone”. It’s regressive. And it’s not true. Most of us don’t want to go it all alone at all.
I saw an image on social media a few days ago, it read
“Nothing should go back to normal
Normal wasn’t working
If we go back to the way things were, we will have lost the lesson
May we rise up and do better”
If living through this pandemic has reminded us of one thing, it is that we could be living very differently. And our world would be better for it.
In recent weeks I have felt so much connection with others. The special people who are close to us, make a genuine effort to stay in contact. They reach out and vice versa. I’ve seen this magnified, as more and more people that we know felt a bit lonely. As the virus spread from country to country, so did concern for others. And that’s a great thing, to care about one another.
People matter. Sure investing in relationships doesn’t ‘up profits’ but it enriches our lives. I came across something written by a friend today, “Building relationships never goes out of fashion” and I thought, how true. Trends will come and go, jobs get relegated to the history of our CVs. Only real relationships last. We should value them.
And yet one of the saddest things about where so many societies had reached before all of this is the the “me, me, me”; “look how big my house is, look at my car, look at how much profit I made last quarter”. I say had, because things could be different in the future. Ask yourself, what do you really value?
Surely life was never meant to about acquiring riches but living richly. A successful life is almost certainly not about what we have materially, but about the life lived; shared experiences, good relationships and lifelong friendships.
With self isolation, many of us have spent some more time online. And I’ve made a few observations. For some, their immediate concerns at the start of the pandemic were about money. We’re not talking about those with genuine concerns, people who are hourly paid, or somehow survive on the minimum wage. But some others, who have plenty, who have savings, even Billionaires’, their first thought was “Me, me, me. Money, money, money’. “When when will we trade again?” But must we continually worship wealth? How much is enough in our lives? Do you think about that?
For others, concern has been expressed about society. “Us”. I reconnected with a friend from high school, who wrote here, (London Calling) expressing her frustration about how key workers in British society were being treated. Friends used social media to share information on community groups, reaching out to the vulnerable in our communities. We will all be ‘the vulnerable’ in our communities one day. Think about that.
We can rise up and do better. Most people will help others. They want to make a positive contribution to their societies. They are not “all about me”. So why does it take a crisis of this magnitude to see more of that?
When will we make adjustments in our lives, to really reach out to others and take care of our environment? When will we build those bridges in our communities, instead of hiding behind our own high walls? What kind of society will we live in, if we simply go back to how it was, and continue to live in a bubble?
This is a call to come out of your ivory tower.
We are told that the virus was transmitted by an animal, a pangolin, on sale in a wet market in Wuhan, a place being run for profit at any cost. It is an example of “I don’t care how I get my money, I’m all about the money”.
That business model is adopted and replicated on every scale, across the world. It could be different. It should be. When was it o.k to exploit animals and to exploit others for our own profits? When did we become such an ugly society?
We can do more to consider the environment. We can stop buying pointless products in plastic packaging, which are polluting the world that your kids and grandkids will inherit. Will you buy less?
We can reduce our long haul travel, travelling more regionally and contributing to air pollution less. We can minimise our consumption of clothes and household items, re-use and recycle more. Will you commit to polluting our world a little less?
And we can speak out against injustice. It’s not enough to stand in your front yard, ‘clap for the NHS’ and then go back into your home and pour yourself another G n T. How about lobbying for NHS workers and key workers to be paid a fairer wage? Will you speak out?
We can rise up and do better.
I’m reminded of Desmond Tutu’s beautiful words
“Do your little bit of good where you are;
it’s those little bits of good put together, that overwhelm the world”.
Wouldn’t you like to live in a world like that?
Or will you just retreat to your ivory tower?