Fabulous! Perhaps this is the hardest part to control "It is the humble, daily, infuriating work of not surrendering to the siren song of despair or cynicism." It's why some of the greatest thinkers have ended in suicide. The more you see the harder it is to keep cynicism, and then despair at bay. We're in a time that many find difficult. The world it changing yet again, the filters are being torn aside, and the generations alive today have not built the resilience needed to face the truth. It is as literal as the lack of a garden in every backyard and as abstract as choosing a side when nothing in the world is black and white.
The wisdom of those who came before us is so powerful and so simply shared in these simple yet deep phases such as "You don't eat promises.". Sadly, the wisdom is often not heeded and every lesson is necessarily relived in some manner.
Thanks for sharing this unsettling and thoughtful missive, Colin.
Ah Colin, this is eloquent, and heart stirring for we who have a heart for what matters, what we Feel every day- this ongoing courage to continue to act, even as our overwhelming grief, from an onslaught of loss of what matters, consumes our spirit.
Your father, clearly a man of his generation, raised well a son who knows that no matter what, focus on planting the good, and the necessary.
I also wrote a diary at eight with similar sentiments, filled then with naiveté only innocence can have. Yet, with the passing years , my innocent belief that everything matters , and everything I do matters, continued to suppress surging jaded life realities .
I have on a wall: There are only two ways to Live. You can choose to live as if nothing is a miracle; or, as if everything is." ( attributed to Albert Eistein).
I choose everything is.
Thank you for 'showing up' and sharing an uplifting moment for a Sunday morning.
First, this is a fantastic post, and it deeply resonated with how I think about our society today. You’ve captured a truth we often avoid: our societal priorities have drifted dangerously off course.
It starts with parents and, secondly, our education systems failing to instill the correct values in the next generation. Instead of teaching children to value integrity, responsibility, and compassion, we’ve spotlighted growth at all costs. As I’ve asked many times before: At what cost?
We’ve created a world where a small minority grows unimaginably wealthy while the rest of humanity bears the burden. Children are being raised to aspire to become billionaires before they turn 30, measured against unrealistic benchmarks, artificial pressures, and rigid deadlines. When they inevitably fail to meet these arbitrary goals, they’re made to feel like failures, as though their worth is tied only to wealth and productivity.
Even worse, when everything is reduced to metrics, people will inevitably find ways to manipulate the system—no matter the cost to others or society. This mindset prizes individual success over collective well-being, eroding the foundations that hold communities together. The result is a world where short-term achievements are celebrated while long-term damage to society and the environment is ignored.
To address this, we must critique the system and redefine it. A key part of this redefinition lies in transforming the purpose of education. Once we’ve instilled the correct values in students, education can become a powerful tool to build a better future. At its highest level, I believe education should:
1. Expose students to a diversity of ideas and perspectives. This fosters empathy, open-mindedness, and the ability to engage with the world's complexities.
2. Teach them how to think—not just what to think. Critical thinking is essential for navigating a world of misinformation, manipulation, and superficial metrics.
3. Share fundamental truths and principles that endure over time. Values such as honesty, justice, kindness, courage, and responsibility must form the foundation of education.
4. Emphasize the value of continuous learning and growth. Education shouldn’t end in the classroom; it’s a lifelong process of curiosity and self-improvement.
5. Show that we are all connected and depend on each other to thrive. This will help build a sense of shared responsibility and community.
6. Demonstrate that a well-lived life isn’t measured by wealth but by the difference we make for others, especially those less fortunate.
As you have said, courage is the key to changing anything, and none of these changes will come easily—it takes courage to challenge the systems and values that have been normalized for decades. It takes courage to teach children that their worth is not tied to their bank account but to their character. It takes courage to stand up to a society that rewards greed and self-interest and instead create one that values community, empathy, and lasting impact. As Nelson Mandela and others have said: “Courage, after all, is not the absence of fear but the willingness to act despite it.” It is the foundation for creating a world where we choose what is right over what is easy.
I want to end by saying that what matters most is not what we achieve individually but what we achieve together. True greatness lies in lifting others, not stepping over them. And a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
Thank you MG. I completely agree with your analysis of how societal priorities have skewed, and your focus on the role of parents and education is exact. You're right, the "growth at all costs" mentality, trickling down into how we raise and educate children, creates exactly the kind of erosion I was trying to capture.
Your points about redefining the purpose of education are crucial. Viewing it as a space to cultivate critical thinking, empathy, fundamental truths, and interconnectedness, rather than just job training or a path to wealth, feels like a direct way to start "respecting the ground" for the future. It's about planting those seeds of character and collective responsibility you mentioned.
Thank you for expanding on that so clearly and for reinforcing the essential role of courage in making any of this real. The Mandela and Emerson quotes are perfect additions.
Potatoes and leeks unglamourous? Not if you turn them into Vichyssoise they aren't!
//
"We live in a time when facts themselves are under siege. When “truth” is reduced to a consumer preference, like a soda flavor."
Or as Stephen Colbert calls it "truthiness". We really need to deport Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.
//
"Orwell warned us that"
| the Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.
Ah yes, doublethink. The subsistence of MAGAnuts. The Kool-Aid.
//
"But awareness without action is a kind of complicity. Knowing better and doing nothing is a greater betrayal than ignorance. And so, we return, stubbornly, to what matters."
A great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
May Day is the next nationwide rally, be there or be square!
Haha, you make an excellent point about Vichyssoise, perhaps 'unglamorous' wasn't quite fair to the humble leek and potato! I'm glad the thoughts on truth and awareness hit home with you. It certainly feels important to move beyond awareness into action.
I’m an old man who plants trees that I will never sit in the shade of.
Me too.
Thx for your vibrant note that touches the most basic in our lives.
Beautiful piece, thank you for sharing it. It’s so easy to give in to cynicism in the current moment. But we need to keep planting the potatoes 🙂
Thank you Justin - the most important lesson I learned
Wow. One of Best pieces I’ve read this year. So very true.
Fabulous! Perhaps this is the hardest part to control "It is the humble, daily, infuriating work of not surrendering to the siren song of despair or cynicism." It's why some of the greatest thinkers have ended in suicide. The more you see the harder it is to keep cynicism, and then despair at bay. We're in a time that many find difficult. The world it changing yet again, the filters are being torn aside, and the generations alive today have not built the resilience needed to face the truth. It is as literal as the lack of a garden in every backyard and as abstract as choosing a side when nothing in the world is black and white.
The wisdom of those who came before us is so powerful and so simply shared in these simple yet deep phases such as "You don't eat promises.". Sadly, the wisdom is often not heeded and every lesson is necessarily relived in some manner.
Thanks for sharing this unsettling and thoughtful missive, Colin.
Ah Colin, this is eloquent, and heart stirring for we who have a heart for what matters, what we Feel every day- this ongoing courage to continue to act, even as our overwhelming grief, from an onslaught of loss of what matters, consumes our spirit.
Your father, clearly a man of his generation, raised well a son who knows that no matter what, focus on planting the good, and the necessary.
I also wrote a diary at eight with similar sentiments, filled then with naiveté only innocence can have. Yet, with the passing years , my innocent belief that everything matters , and everything I do matters, continued to suppress surging jaded life realities .
I have on a wall: There are only two ways to Live. You can choose to live as if nothing is a miracle; or, as if everything is." ( attributed to Albert Eistein).
I choose everything is.
Thank you for 'showing up' and sharing an uplifting moment for a Sunday morning.
First, this is a fantastic post, and it deeply resonated with how I think about our society today. You’ve captured a truth we often avoid: our societal priorities have drifted dangerously off course.
It starts with parents and, secondly, our education systems failing to instill the correct values in the next generation. Instead of teaching children to value integrity, responsibility, and compassion, we’ve spotlighted growth at all costs. As I’ve asked many times before: At what cost?
We’ve created a world where a small minority grows unimaginably wealthy while the rest of humanity bears the burden. Children are being raised to aspire to become billionaires before they turn 30, measured against unrealistic benchmarks, artificial pressures, and rigid deadlines. When they inevitably fail to meet these arbitrary goals, they’re made to feel like failures, as though their worth is tied only to wealth and productivity.
Even worse, when everything is reduced to metrics, people will inevitably find ways to manipulate the system—no matter the cost to others or society. This mindset prizes individual success over collective well-being, eroding the foundations that hold communities together. The result is a world where short-term achievements are celebrated while long-term damage to society and the environment is ignored.
To address this, we must critique the system and redefine it. A key part of this redefinition lies in transforming the purpose of education. Once we’ve instilled the correct values in students, education can become a powerful tool to build a better future. At its highest level, I believe education should:
1. Expose students to a diversity of ideas and perspectives. This fosters empathy, open-mindedness, and the ability to engage with the world's complexities.
2. Teach them how to think—not just what to think. Critical thinking is essential for navigating a world of misinformation, manipulation, and superficial metrics.
3. Share fundamental truths and principles that endure over time. Values such as honesty, justice, kindness, courage, and responsibility must form the foundation of education.
4. Emphasize the value of continuous learning and growth. Education shouldn’t end in the classroom; it’s a lifelong process of curiosity and self-improvement.
5. Show that we are all connected and depend on each other to thrive. This will help build a sense of shared responsibility and community.
6. Demonstrate that a well-lived life isn’t measured by wealth but by the difference we make for others, especially those less fortunate.
As you have said, courage is the key to changing anything, and none of these changes will come easily—it takes courage to challenge the systems and values that have been normalized for decades. It takes courage to teach children that their worth is not tied to their bank account but to their character. It takes courage to stand up to a society that rewards greed and self-interest and instead create one that values community, empathy, and lasting impact. As Nelson Mandela and others have said: “Courage, after all, is not the absence of fear but the willingness to act despite it.” It is the foundation for creating a world where we choose what is right over what is easy.
I want to end by saying that what matters most is not what we achieve individually but what we achieve together. True greatness lies in lifting others, not stepping over them. And a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
Thank you MG. I completely agree with your analysis of how societal priorities have skewed, and your focus on the role of parents and education is exact. You're right, the "growth at all costs" mentality, trickling down into how we raise and educate children, creates exactly the kind of erosion I was trying to capture.
Your points about redefining the purpose of education are crucial. Viewing it as a space to cultivate critical thinking, empathy, fundamental truths, and interconnectedness, rather than just job training or a path to wealth, feels like a direct way to start "respecting the ground" for the future. It's about planting those seeds of character and collective responsibility you mentioned.
Thank you for expanding on that so clearly and for reinforcing the essential role of courage in making any of this real. The Mandela and Emerson quotes are perfect additions.
Oszust zmieniający komentarze, podszywający się pod kogoś kim nie jest. Warto czytać takich autorów. Żal osób które w to wierzą.
Oszust!!!!
Beautiful post, thank you.
//
Potatoes and leeks unglamourous? Not if you turn them into Vichyssoise they aren't!
//
"We live in a time when facts themselves are under siege. When “truth” is reduced to a consumer preference, like a soda flavor."
Or as Stephen Colbert calls it "truthiness". We really need to deport Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.
//
"Orwell warned us that"
| the Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.
Ah yes, doublethink. The subsistence of MAGAnuts. The Kool-Aid.
//
"But awareness without action is a kind of complicity. Knowing better and doing nothing is a greater betrayal than ignorance. And so, we return, stubbornly, to what matters."
A great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
May Day is the next nationwide rally, be there or be square!
Haha, you make an excellent point about Vichyssoise, perhaps 'unglamorous' wasn't quite fair to the humble leek and potato! I'm glad the thoughts on truth and awareness hit home with you. It certainly feels important to move beyond awareness into action.
Hope for success over the May holiday weekend.