Newsletter: The World Needs You and Me

“…a blunt truth that many Americans today seem bent on avoiding: that many of us are rich. Colossally rich.” – Matthew Desmond in Poverty, by America

This year, I’ve realized more and more that I’m in a unique — or perhaps not so unique — position to help save the world.

I can’t pinpoint the moment it hit me, but I did catch myself remembering it again this week as I sat inside a Bronx community garden on a Wednesday afternoon. I was sitting in a basket willow hut I helped make, watering its roots.

How did I get so lucky to be able to tend to plants on a Wednesday at 4pm? So lucky that I get to turn my attention away from my own needs and towards the needs of these willow shrubs?

I must admit that I am rich, colossally rich.

Of course, I’m no millionaire, but at the same time I have enough to more than meet my needs.

I’m also rich in time, in good health, in the freedom to spend my time choosing what I work on and when I work on it.

Has society scared us into thinking we’re not safe?

I have always had these immense privileges, yet I see myself in the Matthew Desmond quote. I was colossally rich, but I didn’t want to admit it.

For years I told myself stories that I needed to make more money to feed myself, to house myself, to protect my future from any potential threat, however unlikely.

I had a serious case of “M.U.S.” — Made-Up Stress.

These stories gave me excuses and kept me comfortable in a strange way.

These stories allowed me to stay comfortable, to not act for the wellbeing of others, and to justify spending my time going through the motions of productivity theater.

They kept me safely on the sidelines instead of stepping up to confront the challenges facing the world. Because confronting them would mean bearing some responsibility for solving them, accepting agency that I actually could make a difference.

Of course, we need to take care of our basic needs, but can we acknowledge that many of us are not just fed, but beyond fed? Do we need all these redundant safety nets?

At the same time as I’ve played these false stories, countless people around me legitimately struggle to buy healthy food for their kids, to pay rent, to have the freedom to take a much-needed day off.

By bringing my attention inward, I’ve become more free to look outward.

It’s time we admit that many of us are rich, and confront what that means for how we spend our lives.

My prosperity means I can take chances — for myself, for my community, and for the world.

As I heal my case of “MUS” (made-up stress), I now realize how excited I am to solve real problems at the intersections of climate justice, social justice, and health.

Ryan Holiday’s new book Right Thing, Right Now has a chapter that resonated with me: Pay It Forward. If like me, you’ve been blessed with opportunities and a good life, your responsibility isn’t to pay it back; it’s to pay it forward.

Over the past few months, this has ​brought me to the community gardens​, to practice ​Saturdays are For The Planet​, and to ​make two TikToks a day​ on issues I care about.

Maybe this applies to you, maybe it doesn’t.

Maybe you’re in a reality closer to mine. If you are, I encourage you to introspect.

Because, as Emily Johnson says in her essay, Love in a Vanishing World, “If you can, then the world needs you, and it needs you right now, because anything that we do this year or next is worth ten of the same thing ten years from now… Our last best chance is now.”

Un abrazo,

~David

If you enjoyed this newsletter and you’d like to receive my next one, subscribe here.