“There were times when I really hated myself, that I’d become changed as a result of listening. You know, my father used to tell me, you’re throwing your life away and taking your family with you. There were no jobs for what I was doing. But I knew I had to do it, because the hardest job of all is to live without a dream.”
—Gordon Hempton
Break out your best earphones for this.
“There are those who endlessly talk and plan. Then there are those who get their hands dirty and create.
There are those who continually snipe impotently from the sidelines. Then there are those who actually try to make change.
There are those who do nothing but complain about everything. Then there are those who experience joy in things, and sometimes try put that joy into words.
Ask yourself which side you’re on. Then, ask yourself why. Regardless of the side you take, chances are you’ll learn something about yourself by answering both questions.”
I love Hong Kong and have loved her for half my life—I think I might have been born there in a previous life (and San Francisco too, because when I was there for the first time I felt an endless familiarity).
I barely read the news these days, but make an exception for Hong Kong. If I love her, I have the responsibility to know what’s going on there.
A few weeks ago, the Beijing government passed the National Security Law. It’s the central government’s way of curbing (ending?) dissent and squashing the rebellion on the ground. It’s working. Self-censorship is already happening. Protest-friendly restaurants that used to be a part of the “Yellow economic circle” have retracted their support. Publishers are scared. Many Hongkongers, offered the chance to relocate to the UK, want to leave. An angry, vocal city is finding herself silenced.
I never imagined Hong Kong—so vibrant, so loud, so proud—could be silenced.
But many are still fighting. Bend the knee? They would rather die.
So let’s wait and see what happens. The story hasn’t ended yet. History can surprise us when we least expect it.
“We can either accept the death of Hong Kong’s way of life as a consequence of the new security law, assuming – wrongly – that we are impotent to do anything about it. Or we can hear the cry of Hongkongers – repeated again and again over the past year and most recently just yesterday in polling stations across the city – and take a stand.
A stand that makes it clear to Hongkongers that even if Beijing and its puppet Chief Executive Carrie Lam refuse to listen, the world hears them.
A stand that says even if we cannot immediately “liberate” the city, we can at least make the Chinese Communist Party pay the highest possible price for breaching an international treaty, breaking its promises and destroying Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.
A stand which says clearly to Hongkongers that even though they may be entering into “the worst of times,” their convictions inspire us to work for “the best of times.”
A stand that says the world knows that even if One Country, Two Systems is dead, it is now “A Tale of Two Cities.” A city increasingly under the grip of the brutal, mendacious, repressive Chinese Communist Party while a free, open, vibrant city still beats in the hearts of ordinary Hongkongers. A city that is increasingly dead in its institutions, governance, and autonomy versus a city that is as alive as ever in its people’s hearts.”
Full article here.
I’m excited to let you know that my guestbook is up! Feel free to sign it and tell me more about yourself—Where are you from? What are your hobbies/work? What gets you excited/curious? How did you find me in the vastness of the internet?
I thought the guestbook was a relic of the old internet, so I’m pleasantly surprised to find out that it still exists!
“…the guestbook was for kindly visitors who journeyed to your corner of the internet, and wanted to leave a nice (or not so nice) message for you — their digital host.
No one respected a webmaster with an empty guestbook, and I can now freely admit, many years later, that I may have faked some entries in my own guestbook to remain popular with my peers. Times were tough.”
—Luke Harrison
They say we’re a speck in the universe. This website drives home the point for me. (It got me a little emotional too.)
“Discovering the meaning of desire in this way frees us from the moralizing, guilt-inducing command to be less selfish and more altruistic. No, just take the time to listen to what is calling to you, and spontaneously, you will emerge from yourself, be attentive to others, and become engaged. Ask yourself, quite simply, what you want. Someone who becomes involved in an organisation to help combat violence against women or to aid the illiterate doesn’t do so from some altruistic sense of duty, but because it appeals to them, speaks to them, makes them feel more alive and happier.”
—Fabrice Midal
Shot in Sapporo and San Francisco.
“So, what exactly is the news? This is the most basic definition: information on events from across the world. A bus accident in Australia. An earthquake in Guatemala. President A is meeting President B. Actress C has divorced celebrity D. A missile launch in North Korea. Argentina is bankrupt. A record-breaking app. An international corporation fires its CEO. A man from Texas eats five kilos of live worms. A man stabs his grandmother. The closing price of the Dow Jones.”
—Rob Dobelli
Rob Dobelli argues the case for quitting the news.
A longer and more layered discussion between Rob Dobelli and The Correspondent founding editor Rob Wijnberg:
My thoughts in a future post.
Growing up, I was unaware of the world and the scope and depth of its problems; I thought they only happened far away, and to other people. But as an adult, like many of my friends, I feel complicit in the world’s problems today, even as I want to make things better.
We feel, I think, mostly guilt. Guilt, for our privilege. Guilt, for our ignorance. Guilt, for not doing more.
I’ve had to work through these feelings—not only guilt, but also sadness, grief, anger, anxiety—and talk myself through why this is not a healthy and productive way to be. I thought I’d write a little about my inner resolution here.
In a broken world (we must admit that we live in a broken world, and not continue to sugar-coat reality), we all have important work to do and things to rebuild.
But we see people like Malala and we think we could never be like her. The bar is too high. We see people who build NGOs, volunteer at Médecins Sans Frontières, work at the front-lines of hospitals to combat COVID-19, protest on the streets at the risk of being imprisoned, get into local politics in order to change legislations, and we think… these people are doing important work, and we’re not.
But I’m here to write, to propose, that we are all doing important work, and that we can all do important work without being stuck in the usual definition of what “important work” is.
My friend who runs a cafe is doing important work, by filling people’s bellies with coffee and people’s hearts with love. Her work is important because she chooses to infuse it with meaning, by building community and always striving to do right by her customers. Her work of brewing coffee and making sure her shop runs smoothly builds people’s faith in the goodness of other people, and that’s important work, even though it’s not grand.
I have another friend who spends most of her time helping her family and friends with chores and errands. People come to her with their problems and she helps to solve them. Sometimes it’s a website that needs to be done, sometimes it’s a social media post, sometimes it’s a relationship problem. She always finds time to help, and she always helps at the expense of her own time. Important work, but not grand.
Important work can be unnoticeable or below-the-radar, and it doesn’t have to pay. I think of my newsletter as important work, even though nobody pays me to write and I only have 500 subscribers. I believe this work is important because I get to help people feel better or see another point of view. Sometimes, not all the time, and not with everyone. But even though my audience (and my impact) is tiny, I see my writing as important work because it adds something positive to the world, rather than subtract from it.
The other important work we can do is to take care of ourselves. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that the way to build peace in the world is to build peace in ourselves first, because we are all inter-connected. If I am depressed, unhealthy, angry, I cannot help others. As they say, “Happy people help people.” And guess what? Even if a happy person doesn’t go out of her way to help others, she is already helping by not adding to the problems of the world.
Another important work we can do is to educate ourselves, to never stop learning. The more we learn, the more we can unlearn (and there’s much to unlearn). When we adopt an attitude of, “I really don’t know much of anything,” we become perpetual students and less inclined to force other people to adopt the same views as us, since we hardly know anything. Can you imagine a world where most people spend their time learning rather than fighting? I want to live in that world.
Finally, let your passion and your curiosity lead you to doing work that you care for. If someone tells you that passion doesn’t pay, that you’re wasting your time, ask in return, “Then what does a passion-less life pay?” Work fueled by passion and curiosity will always be important because it’s rooted in a sense of “right-ness”. No words can describe it; it just feels like the right thing to do. This important work doesn’t have to be a job; it can be something you do on the side. It all counts.
In summary: Dissolve the guilt. Do the work, whatever work it might be, and be proud of yourself, because you’re building and not destroying. No matter how small your work is, believe that it is contributing to a bigger chain of events that is making the world better. If we feel called to go to a war-torn country to volunteer our talent, we should do it. But if we feel called to do work that’s not as grand, that’s wonderful too.
I wish you courage and strength in continuing to do the important work that you’re doing.
(Originally published via my newsletter.)