#92: Rejoicing in an Extra Hour of Sleep
Reading Pip's piece below, I am reminded of a quote from one of my favorite movies "Before Sunrise": "Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?" With election day looming in the U.S. and tensions high with Brexit negotiations here in the UK, this piece was a needed reminder that ultimately - even though it may not feel like it very often - humans are more alike than different, but somewhere along the way, we tend to lose this perspective. Thank you, Pip, for this salient illustration that I know will stick with me!
- Lauren
Pip Coburn pcoburn@coburnventures.com
REJOICING IN AN EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP
I sense that we have taken in an idea that humans are all so different… and maybe miss how very very much we are the same…
…to our collective detriment.
I read this passage last month about shared human experiences:
“We are born, grow up, go to school, graduate, get a job, and make money. Maybe we marry, maybe we don’t. Maybe we have kids, maybe we don’t. But the basic routine is the same for all of us. We talk about the weather and attend important meetings. We make plans for the future and purchase things we want. And so life passes…" - Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
Maybe change for the better happens when us humans recognize our sameness…
when we see our shared struggles…and joys.
Maybe empathy combined with kindness equals compassion.
Many who study people from very distinct lenses have told me the same thing: humans actively harm each other when they no longer see a difference among us, when they see a "difference in kind."
In other words, a “difference of kind” is an interpretation that the “other” is non-human. This orientation allows us to justify harming the “other.”
A teacher once said that the definition of happiness for many people is simply “wanting others to agree with them…and what's the harm in that??”
I think I have been “there” a few times! Hah! Such a pursuit of happiness didn’t work so well.
Instead, I am learning that even those Michigan fans – as misguided as they are — seem to be just as capable of kindness as Ohio State fans! I actually had great exchanges with several this morning at the Black Cow.
In David Brooks' editorial last week, he provided some great stats that indicate only about 15% of the U.S. population is TRULY polarized. The other 85% of us are more so confused, but definitely not “polarized.”
We are confused…not so much polarized.
Recently I saw a protestor’s sign: "No room for hate."
It didn’t say: "No room for opposing views."
Can we call this progress?
Maybe we aren’t all filled with HATE for those carrying an opposing view.
Maybe it is okay to not even know my own point of view in the first place.
Maybe it is okay to openly share small moments of joy, as even “little things” remind us of our commonness.
After all, who doesn't rejoice in the simple act of turning clocks back an hour, together receiving the gift of an extra hour of sleep?
…Pip
Pip's first-person bio:
More than anything I suspect I am driven by “community”. Across the past 15 years, I have grown to realize that most any success or fortune I have had in the work I do I have re-invested back into my activities such that I spend more and more of my life with people I adore and admire and just loving being around and working on a whole bunch of things that I am incredibly excited about. I like to study monumental change at the levels of society, marketplaces, organizations and most significantly… people. I like to study culture deeply. I like to attempt to create culture. I like processes and helping others advances their processes and being trusted deeply. My wife Kelly is both supportive and probably confused by what I do for a living which makes two of us. My greatest joy in my work is when I have the chance to draw from two decades of intense work in order to perhaps help someone have a break through.