By Martha Nieman
“In a world we cannot recognize, how do we find a way forward? In this world we do not understand, how do we know what to do? When so little is comprehensible, what is meaningful work, what is genuine contribution?”
Not long after the 2024 November election, I saw this quote from Margaret Wheatley’s book, Who Do We Choose to Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, and it immediately resonated with me. That was it in a nutshell! The world is now vastly different from the world I knew as a child, youth, and even a young adult. As I matured I could start to see the dark side—the injustices, the violence, the value placed on achievement, elevating progress and money over the needs of people. Back then, I believed that everyone really wanted the best for others and the common good, and would work together to make that happen. Perhaps I was naïve, or perhaps we were better then at covering up the dark side. Greed, violence, prejudice, hate, and injustice have been there all along, but now it is out in the open and seems acceptable to a good portion of Americans. I have been raised and have independently embraced that love, compassion, justice, equality, mercy, kindness, and service to others is the way to live my life.
So, yeah! What do I do to live this life in a world where attitudes and behaviors that are humane, decent, and acceptable are out the window? How do I go about resurrecting these values in this culture? It is frightening to me to think that children are now being raised in this kind of atmosphere. This is what will be normal to the upcoming generation! My first reaction to hearing the election results was that those who are now in power do not have power over my attitudes, decisions, and actions.
Margaret Wheatley is an internationally respected educator and consultant on community building for individuals, activists, leaders, and organizations. She asserts that creation of community, local islands of sanity, is what is required to weather the cultural storm we are now in.
We must open our eyes to what is happening, identify what we value and are willing to keep working for even when it is fearful, hard, disappointing, and unappreciated. This will reconnect us to our personal and collective power to lead and serve others in the difficult times ahead. JONAH is in the perfect position to do this, because JONAH has been working on exactly this for the past 18 years. Stay tuned for more thoughts.
Martha is working with the newly formed Voices United Task Force to help guide efforts that engage people in building a more connected and inclusive community. As part of this work, we’re offering three upcoming trainings on Self-Interest to help participants identify what they truly value and what they’re willing to keep working for, even when it’s challenging.