Hope Springs Eternal
In my 67 years on this planet I’ve seen many shocks to the system, from bloody revolutions that have brought down entrenched dictators, to the fall of the once mighty Soviet Union; from Great Recessions and economic meltdowns to oil embargoes and commandeered jets flying into our power centers. So here is my take on the global pandemic we are living through.
1) Chaos is the norm. What we consider normal is the exception. Cope!
2) Being part of a tribe or a tight-knit community increases one's chances of survival and success, and makes the process more exhilarating.
3) Once we have our basics covered, a focus on giving rather than accumulation increases one's quality of life. Read Man’s Search for Meaning to get Victor Frankel’s take on how to survive in a concentration camp.
4) The only thing worse than dying is not having lived fully. If there is no cause we are willing to die for, then we are just surviving, not thriving. Stoics believe The Obstacle is the Way. The Coronavirus is the current obstacle.
5) A man can live a month without food, a week without water, but not a day without hope. We all need to believe in, and hope for, something bigger than ourselves.
To maintain the fabric of our community during times that tests a man’s soul, we have been talking to and comforting a lot of people, delivering groceries and helping out how we can. So when people ask me how am I doing and what am I up to, instead of assuming they are talking about the Coronavirus or my stock portfolio, I tell them how excited I am to see that after 40 years and three failed local elections, we finally have a credible chance to privately finance and build a world class cultural arts center on our public land adjacent to our main public library. From Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, Boulder is the only city without a major cultural arts center! And as good of a job as The Dairy does with limited facilities and resources, we deserve better, especially now that University of Colorado is building a giant hotel on The Hill?!
By the end of my enthusiastic speech, I can literally see hope overcome fear on my listener’s face. Then they want to know more and learn how to participate. It is still too early to share more than our grand vision. This decade-long project may sound more grandiose and impossible than the proposal we offered 30 years ago to build a first class hotel in the Boulder Creek flood plane across the street, but there sits St. Julian, so who knows?! Hope springs eternal.
I would have preferred to share this idea with our community once it is more baked, but somehow I believe in The Time of Coronavirus, our City Club community needs a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) to shift our focus from fear to hope.