As I worry about what's happening right now in the United States, I am reminding myself to use my favorite struggle strategy which is to take the long view. What matters when we consider the long view of ten years from now or 20 years from now?
Ideally, as I take the long view, my priorities include a healthy planet and a healthy people. If the planet is sick and people are sick, violence, hate, and harm will increase. If the planet is healthy and people are healthy, we have a better chance at good living for many. So with the long view in mind, a healthy planet and a healthy people is my first priority.
As I take the long view for my own life, health is once again the priority--I know that if I'm as healthy as I can be, I will live a better life for the next ten, twenty, and even more years. I also want my loved ones to live good lives, and health is a priority in this regard too. So what can I do to ensure best possible health for me, my loved ones, my community, my nation, and my world?
Physical health
There's all kinds of good information out there about how to be as physically healthy as possible. Physical health depends on healthy activity, food, needed medications/medical help, and a healthy planet. If we live in polluted places without access to clean natural resources, we won't be healthy. Sadly, right now, our leadership in the USA is short sighted and self-serving so they are increasing pollution and lessening our access to clean natural resources--this makes us all sick. The current administration is also lessening our access to good medical advice and the kind of science that works to increase and improve our health and welfare. With this in mind, it's clear that we have to rid our government of these deadly, short-sighted, ignorant, self-servers as they are working against our physical health and welfare due to their low intelligence, lack of vision, and too-great self-serving egos. If we want to be healthy with the long view in mind, we have to adopt healthy lifestyles for ourselves and support leaders, agencies, and investments that care about our individual and collective health today and into the future in smart, successful ways.
Mental health
I read reports of the numbers of people that struggle with mental health problems in society. One way we can improve our collective mental health is to invest in building strong, positive communities where people have the time and resources to well-care for one another. The fact that society does not support this leads to greater mental health problems. If parents, teachers, health care professionals, librarians, and all public servants have the time and resources they need to do their best job, I know we will see greater, positive mental health amongst all citizens. Right now most parents, teachers, and public servants are struggling to do good work due to insufficient time and resources. A greater investment in care needs such as increased childcare leaves, lower class sizes, adequate staffing, spacious/modern/inviting indoor-outdoor locations for schools/health facilities./libraries/public services, fair salaries and more will allow public servants and family members to care for others well and this will spell better mental health.
A friend commented about the impact of AI on jobs since AI is replacing people. One way to counter this is to redesign the way we live and work. Rather than a 40-hour work week, let's think about reduced time-on-task with regard to jobs and increased time-on-task with regard to living well and taking care of one another. If we slow down our routines with regard to work and increase the time we spend on caring for our homes, gardens, the people we love, and the planet, we will be able to use AI to positively help us while not crippling us by taking what for most people is a too-time consuming work week.
So as I look into the future, I want to support greater investment in the healthy living for all. If we take a holistic look at what we need to be a healthy society and investment in that by way of good leadership and public services, we will create a brighter future for all. That's where my focus will be.
