Positivity is Resistance

I woke up early this morning to a wild amount of fog over our lake. I had never really seen anything like it in the 2+ years we’ve lived here. Beautiful and eerie. Here’s a video I shot from our dock at around 7:30 AM:

I listened to Basecamp’s Jason Fried on The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show podcast. There’s a lot of great advice in this episode. Jason has a knack for ‘duh, that makes perfect sense’ statements that I hadn’t thought of before — or, at least, considered in that way. His fantastic book Rework is filled with this type of knowledge.

In the interview Jason touches on the benefit of a news deprivation diet, a gospel I’m always glad to spread. Says Jason:

I think {constant news} is a way, unfortunately, for negativity to get in your brain and to get you upset about things. I don’t want to be that way. That’s one of the reasons I don’t really follow the news. I used to be a news junkie. {But} I don’t pay attention to the news at all anymore. Almost nothing really matters right now. Everything’s breaking news 24/7; everything’s a hot story. But none of this shit is a hot story that matters right now. If you’re in the path of a hurricane, you’ll want to know that, but a lot of other things can wait. I’m more a fan of things that can wait than right now.

This is my feeling, exactly, and it does take discipline to reach this no-breaking-news state. There’s so much pressure to keep up, to know every little thing that’s happening. FOMO (fear of missing out). But Jason espouses an alternative philosophy: JOMO — the joy of missing out.

I wrote an email the other day to a creative friend in Europe distressed by all that’s happening in France. I hoped to reassure with these words:

All these horrible things that are happening are ultimately a reaction to the way the world is changing. And it’s positive change these awful people are reacting to: inclusiveness, justice, expanded freedoms for everyone. As one can’t stop change, things will get better. But it’s going to be a rough ride for a while. It always is, as it always has been.

Our best way to make a difference in these times is to be productive, create, and do our best work. We can’t do that if we’re constantly distracted by ‘breaking news’ and all this mess. And, in my opinion, the people in power right now purposely create distraction and outrage to keep us from doing our best work — it’s intentional.

We can’t control any of this. But we shouldn’t feel defeated, as it was never our battle to begin with. Instead, it’s wise to concentrate on what we do have control over and brush off the rest. It’s not a head-in-the-sand attitude — it’s still healthy to be concerned and to engage in activism — but our preoccupations should be on what we can influence, whether it’s our work, our family and loved ones, or our local community. Positivity is resistance, and our work and change have the power to reverberate as we show our peers that we care enough to create rather than wallow, worry, and complain.

On another note, it looks like I’m going to SXSW next year. I’ll be there supporting Monta At Odds who are playing a couple of showcases. I’m excited to see and meet with a bunch of old friends and eat as much as possible of that fantastic food Austin has on offer.