Office Hours: How are you staying hopeful in these trying times?

A pandemic that hasn’t ended. Inflation that’s soaring. Putin’s war in Ukraine that could escalate into a nuclear confrontation. A climate crisis that’s worsening. Trump and his followers’ continued attacks on our democracy. I could go on.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a degree of stress I don’t remember feeling in a very long time.

So here’s today’s Office Hours question: How are you staying hopeful in these trying times? At least, what are your coping mechanisms?

Please let us know. I’ll give you my two cents as well.

Okay, it’s now time for me to weigh in.

Several of you have asked me how I stay hopeful, and what are my coping strategies in stressful times like these. I rely on six.

1.  Young people. My students (all 750 of them this semester) are mostly around 20 years old. My colleagues at Inequality Media are mostly in their late 20s. In other words, all are about a half-century younger than I am. Their energy, optimism, laughter, and hopefulness are hugely infectious.

2.   Laughter. I try to find at least five things to laugh at each day (including myself). As I age, I find that the world is brimming with ironies, that the cosmos is deviously humorous, and that most of the people I know or read about are hilarious (whether they know it or not).

3.   Activism. I not only stay active physically, but also try to help push my small corner of the world toward truth and social justice. The more I do, the better I feel. I love this Substack because it gives me an opportunity to share some thoughts and ideas with you, and hear your own thoughts and ideas.

4.   Nature and personal time. I’m blessed to live in a beautiful place, with gorgeous flora and with mountains descending into glorious valleys and to the sea, along with easily accessible trails. Quiet walking through this fabulous environment puts me at ease.

5.   Dance. There is nothing that lifts my spirits more quickly than clicking on a song by Paul Simon, the Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Buena Vista Social Club, or Dolly Parton – and dancing. My preference is to dance with someone, but I’m perfectly happy to dance alone in my kitchen.

6.   History. Not only do I love to read it, but I learn a great deal from reading it – especially the truism that we’ve been here before. Lately I’ve been focusing my attention on the years between 1870 and 1916 – the first Gilded Age, followed by the Progressive Era. I’ve found many parallels between then and now, along with quite a bit that’s encouraging.

What I’ve left out and why:

Friends? I have them, and sometimes they contribute to one of the six-mentioned coping mechanisms above. But (and here again, probably age-related) I’ve found that too often our get-togethers descend into gripe sessions about the nation, the world, or personal health. Ugh.

Family? I love them dearly. But I don’t rely on them to buoy my spirits. That’s too much of a burden to place on them. And, of course, families are complicated in all sorts of ways.

Work? I’m trying to cut back on the parts of my work that don’t fit under the six-mentioned coping mechanisms, because they’re mostly meetings about processes or they’re paperwork or they require bureaucratic problems. I don’t really enjoy any of this, and I have less and less time for them.

Any of this helpful to you?

(Oh, and here’s a video …)

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