I don't understand anything

contemplations on health, society, and visions in this dystopia we are all pretending to live in

Dear Friend -

I want to start off by saying that I don't understand anything. I am deciding to write and share my writing because I am trying to figure things out. Life makes no sense to me. It hasn't for a while. After taking the Lifestyle Medicine for Coaches course offered through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, I think I have a general understanding of what one needs to be healthy. It actually seems pretty simple, it's just that the society we're living in creates loads of unnecessarily obstacles to do it. 

There are six things we need to do to be healthy: 

1. Eat mostly plants

2. Sleep deeply 

3. Move often especially in nature

4. Connect fully and meaningfully with people

5. Be grateful and center yourself.

6. Have fun and play!

Doesn't seem that hard, and yet... it's so fucking hard. It's so fucking hard it's dystopic. Especially when thinking about what is happening in the Ukraine. What is the point of working all the time if you could be murdered by the choices made by some people who have never even met you and most likely never will and you have absolutely no control over?

As an educator, I see my role as teaching the younger generation the skills they need to live healthy, joyful, and meaningful lives. I've mostly figured out what is a healthy life, what the emotion joy feels like and how to identify it,  as well as how to identify what is meaningful both objectively and subjectively. But how to create AND maintain a life that meets those basic human needs, I'm frustrated. 

I have all these visions about the way life could be, a place where every living thing -human, animal, and plant - could live harmoniously, could have all their needs met. There would be no need for oppressors and the oppressed but a beautiful interconnected ecosystem.

Sometimes I feel like I'm crazy for how I see what could be, sometimes I feel sad and hopeless. 

Today is one of those days when I feel both. This is why I have decided to start writing and sharing my thoughts again. Am I really the only one having these thoughts? The only one trying to put the puzzle pieces together and figure out how we can make a better society? I know it's not true. I know I am not alone, and yet, too often, I have cyclical conversations in my head or get told that I am too optimistic or unrealistic. 

I will try to write once a week. I will send an email using substack. 

My intention in sending these emails is to open up conversations and connect fully and meaningfully with you about things I care deeply about and am struggling to understand.  I ask that you are honest and curious and assume best intentions. Feel free to unsubscribe if it is too much. If you are writing your own thoughts somewhere or you want to respond to these emails, do! I will respond when I am able to. I want to hear your thoughts. I want this to be a conversation not a soapbox.

I love you.

Sincerely,

Sammy