Well, the last entry was pretty depressing (at least to me), so I want to take the other side of the coin (corkscrew?) and say this.

When there is unrest, and things are breaking, there is also opportunity to build. After all – something must replace what was there before (even if that something is a whole lot of nothing). In a sense, now is a time to figure out what we want to build towards, and the vision of the future we want. While I certainly do not have the tools to instigate a lot of change, I hope the vision resonates enough with those who can instigate change that those people (all 3 of you!) who see it may agree with it, and use your own tools to implement this vision.

I want to live in a society that is more connected (but not in the social-media way). I mean more long-form conversation where people can get to the heart of things, rather than a mish-mash of quotes and quips in 140 characters or less. I mean, those are fun too, but let’s have a culture that values in-person dialogue and sitting down at the same table.

I want to live in a society where people can balance working for their living, and actually living. Where you go to work, but then come home and have enough energy to spend time on their hobbies and families.

I want to live in a sustainable society where we have respect for, value, and preserve our resources. Whether you believe God, or any gods, provide those resources or we live in a world of purely science and nature, these resources have shown themselves to be finite and their use not without consequence.

I want to live in a society where people are held accountable for the harms they’ve done, but also allows for mistakes and forgiveness, and a path forward in life. The foundation of this is trust – how can we truly foster trust? And no, not in some “how do I foster a sense of trust in others to get what I want” kind of way, but “how do we foster trust because I care about your well-being and you care about my well-being?”

I want to live in an educated society where we all have basic understanding of statistics and data, good reading comprehension skills, a foundational grasp of human history, the system of science (even if we don’t have great scientific knowledge on everything), and the value of different types of human contribution. After all, scientists who find cures for disease are just as valuable as farmers who plant and nurture our food.

I want to live in a society where we see the whole person. We see what any one person contributes others, and we see how that same person hurts others. Where people make mistakes and we find ways to encourage and help them rectify those mistakes, and love them anyway, while celebrating also when they do good. After all, we’re all a pretty mixed bunch.

There’s more but…here’s a start.