Nature demonstrates that everything is subject to cycles and duality is inherent throughout.  Every coin has two sides, summer turns into winter and the pendulum swings from kinetic to potential energy. Likewise, just as the ocean tides ebb and flow, everything is subject to expansion and contraction. 

Chaos might be defined as the transition from one state to another; neither a caterpillar nor a butterfly. The King is dead; long live the King is Shakspeare’s way of telling us that the only constant is change. As such, I posit that we need to be smart to thrive during times of expansion, and wise to survive during times of contraction. 

One need not be a philosopher to realize that once again our world is transitioning from nearly eighty years of relative peace, prosperity, and expansion, to one marked by chaos whether it is represented by the war in Ukraine, by high inflation threatening the meltdown of the global banking system, or by near civil wars in Israel and France. Meanwhile, Germany and Japan are arming, while China brokers a fake peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia to ensure it can buy plenty of cheap oil from both.

Add to this the millions of doses of deadly fentanyl entering the country each year, the earthquakes in Turkey, and the near meltdown of the Swiss banking system, and soon it becomes obvious that chaos reigns.

So what strategy should a wise person adapt to survive during chaotic times like this? My advice is to start with the basics: eat healthy food to nourish both body and the spirit; set aside eight hours for sleep no matter how busy; spend an hour a day on physical activity, preferably in nature; invest in close relationships knowing we become the average of the five closest people in our lives.

While advice may be cheap to dispense and difficult to follow, it is also a good time to remind ourselves that City Club is here as a shelter from the storm. I don’t know how bad it is going to get, or how long it is going to take before “this too shall pass,” but cycle it will, and we will still be here after it happens.

— Sina.