I’ve been struggling to write for the last decade, and while there’s numerous reasons for that, a major one was the destabilizing effect of the 2016 Presidential election, the ripples of which flowed through everything in our society as well as the world, including our hearts and souls. Many will argue, but to me it is clear and while all the creatives among us (which could be all of us if we simply fed the right impulses and parts of our brain) could have been creating more, connecting more, we were all forced to stare into the ugly belly of this beast and deal with the wide ranging fallout, from deportations and death, to simply not being able to afford groceries and gasoline, none of which affects the ultra-rich who are making these proclamations. Good god it’s been a hell of a decade.

As of this writing there are 47 days until the general election, during which I pray to any god that will listen for a restoration of sanity, a rebalancing toward stability. Who, besides the ones making money off the daily destruction of our norms of decency, wants the world our current leaders have created? Who can possibly look at the state of things and say, “Yes, this is what I want, this is what I voted for.” If any can, then I pity them their emptiness, their misery that makes them desire to pull everyone else down into their darkness when, instead, they could allow the light of others to pull them up, for the world, and our lives, are full of endless potential and possibilities if only we would allow ourselves to be in the great flow of things rather than fight against reality – to jump in, not to be heartlessly thrown against the rocks by life, but to ride the waves, responding to the obstacles with wisdom, rather than reacting from our animal brain. Embrace being human, put down the goddamn phone and turn off all the goddamn talking heads and feel life, use your intuition and ask if what you’re doing benefits your soul (and NOT just your ego) as well as the souls of others. If the answer is no, why are you doing it? The ones that need to do the most inner work, to look deeply within themselves, are exactly the ones most embracing all of this excess technology that does nothing but distance us from ourselves and others.

And so, with all that, today I want to put out a simple plea to make the world – your very small corner of it in this blink of history – a better place. Cause if you want things to be better, than YOU have to be better, and I have to be better, and all of us do, and that doesn’t have to be overwhelming in any way. What can you do? We can all do something, from giving millions if you have them (and if you have millions and you’re not giving some away, how empty are you? Your money will never fill you up) or simply smiling at the cashier and being kind rather than refusing to look away from your phone and even make eye contact with someone who is just trying to make enough to survive, make it though another day. That smile can turn the day around for that person, and I know because it has for me.

I don’t have much money, but I have blood, and so the other day I gave blood. It felt good. I’ll never know the person it will help but it will help someone, and that person has a family and so it will help their family and the ripples go out and out and out, the same way negative ripples go out and out and out. If there’s a choice between the two, why choose the latter?

I think it’s safe to say that ours is the most materialistic society in the history of the world. (Now, any time you make any black and white pronouncement online you’re bound to have someone argue. Go ahead, but it’s beside the point and will receive no reply). Any yet, we certainly aren’t the happiest or most stable society in the world so why do we continue to consume so much? For most of us, it’s all we know, taught to ignore the sufferings of others because, hey, there’s a new iPhone out and it is slightly more powerful than the one we have and my friend is going to get it and then I’ll be behind them and blah blah blah. We rationalize our consumption when we don’t need most of the things we buy, and when that money could go to so many better causes. I’m in no way advocating for some kind of asceticism, but to look at your consumption habits, and to look at your happiness and contentment (true happiness and contentment, not how often you feel little spikes of dopamine from novelty) and ask yourself why you do what you do?

Already have a TV that works great, but want a bigger one? Why? Have a great car but still want a new one? Have a yacht but want a super yacht? Why? What are you missing? What do you think you’ll really gain from that new thing? Help. I beg everyone to just help the world a little more. Endless numbers of people and animals, let alone the environment (which has been damaged the most by our consumption), need help. Why keep grabbing for more and more, and never becoming happier or more settled in your soul, when you can do so much good with that money, perhaps even save lives. And if you don’t have money, then with some of your time. Instead of scrolling though AI shit for an hour, what if you made meaningful conversation with someone? Read to a child? Or just danced alone to try to feed your own inner light, which in itself will make the world a brighter place?

We all have something to contribute. If you’re angry because of how angry our discourse has become, stop feeding it with more anger. If you want peace in the world, you have to have peace in yourself. What do you want the world to look like? You shape it every day with every choice you make and you can change those choices. If you don’t like something you don’t have to try to destroy it, you can put that energy into something positive instead, which has the potential to reduce/minimize that thing which you were so upset about to begin with. We can build ourselves up without tearing anyone else down. And we can start today, right now. I beg you. For the world and for yourself, for your loved ones and for the strangers you’ll never meet – help.