100 Posts! (and a live event!)
Some silly, some serious, and all about creating a wilder AND more civilized world
I’m not sure why ‘100’ is a meaningful milestone in so many things, but it is!
When you can first swim 100 meters, keeping your snacks to 100 calories, striving for that $100k a year, or writing 100 posts….it feels appropriate to celebrate! 🍾 So I am!
And I am also taking a moment to thank you for being part of the first 100 posts! It is wonderful to see how many of you open the emails and app every day, and I love getting your comments and feedback. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing to be here in this Earth’s Next Chapter community. (And more news on that in a minute).
My goals for this wee newsletter were both personal and professional and I expected both the content and the goals would evolve over time. My primary intent with posting daily though, (as opposed to say, weekly) was find ways to distill what are broad and deep topics into a digestible format that anyone can resonate with, and to make it interesting and varied (and short!) enough so that people look forward to reading it!
With respect to those goals, I think I’m getting there, though I also think (hope!) there will be much more learning and certainly lots more evolution to come.
One thing that has become clear over the last three months or so, is that while writing ‘Earth’s Next Chapter’ involves just about every topic under the sun (pun very much intended and….delivered), it boils down to a few themes and truths:
‘Savoring’ and ‘Saving’ our world are not mutually exclusive, and life doesn’t have to be a constant fight in order to create something better. Without being able to taste, breathe, and wallow in what we love, we fail to appreciate what we want to preserve and improve. So, in fact, savoring the world is a critical part of saving it.
Civility is at the heart of true civilization. We have seen firsthand in America lately that when civility breaks down, so does what we value about civilization. This is has become obvious to just about everyone who engages in social media, but it’s also true in Congress, on airplanes, and in school board meetings. We must reclaim our ability to appreciate and connect with each other if we’re to restore and promote a civilization worth our global citizenship. It’s also what allows us to understand and prioritize ‘the common good’, which includes sustainable choices and social justice, and looks to the future rather than only the present.
We can protect and extend wilderness, even while we protect and extend civilization. In fact, we must. The planet’s wildest places include where the most oxygen is produced and the most carbon sequestered, but even more than that, these places inspire us and advise us of what’s important. They keep us humble and grounded as humans. Wilderness, in short, is a source of humanity. True civilization (respectful, artful, diverse), can be extended without diminishing our wilderness.
Humor is essential! We have to be able to laugh at ourselves if we are to move forward with our mental health intact! And seriously - being able to see and chuckle at the more-than-occasional absurdity of ‘us’ and our choices, gives us a moment of connection (with each other), and of insight, both of which can also lead to good-natured action to be smarter in the long run.
So, these themes (and more) will definitely show up consistently over the next 100 days and beyond!
Also, as we move beyond the first 100 days, there will also be more for the subscribers (free and paid) among you! First of all, we are going to be doing some interviews - fun, serious, fascinating people who do amazing things. These interviews will be a while until we get them recorded and up online, but I’ll be sending out notes to the subscribers when they are available. Look out for those!
And for the paid subscribers only, we’re going to have some live events online!! While connecting and being part of a community through comments is great, I also want to talk to you all in person, and I hope you would welcome the opportunity to talk with each other too.
So! We’re going to start our first ever ‘ENC Network and Noodle’ this month! We’ll have a loose theme for each one. I’ll start off by introducing the theme, and then we can chat about it - share your experiences and insight, ask each other questions, and share ideas! It will be fun, light, and hopefully rich and inspiring.
And now that I have 100 posts under my belt, I am also going to be promoting the feed to a wider readership. And I would love your help.
Please consider sending a note to five people that you think would enjoy a daily dose of Earth’s Next Chapter, or send them this post, and encourage them to hit the subscribe button for a free or paid option. The more people signup, the more the feed gets noticed organically too.