I warmed the bench on my varsity high school team (brag much?). I remember one mantra the team would repeat constantly.
“If not now, when? If not us, who? Go Braves! Go Braves!”
I always hated that chant.
If not now, when?
The answer is simple. Later. If it doesn’t happen now, maybe it’ll happen later. Or maybe it will never happen. Why does it need to even happen in the first place?
If not us, who?
Well, also very simple. It’d be someone else. The next team. Some other group. Someone who is better prepared or maybe doesn’t have as much competition in the field. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen at the time it’s supposed to happen and with the people it’s supposed to happen with.
There’s always a give and take. That’s the paradox of life, baby. You’ve got to both intensely push and serenely accept. Wisdom is trusting that you’ll know which one you need to do and when you need to do it. And giving it all your absolute all.
While everyone else fired themselves up chanting those phrases, I asked too many questions to be motivated. Hence why I often found myself on the bench. That, and my average-sized stature next to the statuesque beasts on the starting line.
Of course, in high school, I understood we were talking about winning the championship. We were supposed to be all amped to make it happen now, now, now! And be the ones to do it! We’re the best! Go us!
I actually do love a good, thoughtful question.
My favorite for a long time was “If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?” I pondered that for years. I’ve finally decided that yes, of course it makes a sound. It makes a sound because it’s in its nature to make a sound when it falls. It doesn’t need a witness. It doesn’t need validation. The tree falls, a sound is made, and maybe someone hears it. The tree doesn’t care either way.
Lately, I do think there are certain moments and places and people that the universe converges together that feels really important. More than your average day. It is a moment, an opportunity, a chance to really make a difference. You feel it in your core. Your goosebumps tingle. Your body feels warm. It’s go time.
I also feel like that’s happening right now. At least for me.
I found myself in a family-and-business building mode for the past several years. A major shift happened in my personal and professional lives. And I’m just now starting to see the path for reemergence.
As I start to take notes of the world I’ve been actively ignoring while I hyper-focused on my own, I’m realizing that there are some big issues we need to tackle. People are obsessed with screens. The things being said and believed on those screens are egregious. The entities saying things on screens aren’t even real much of the time, and yet they’re having very real effects on our world. We’re addicted to unhealthy conflict. We’re screaming into digital echo chambers. And we’ve allowed these devices that were supposed to be another tool we work with to become the main way we view the world around us.
It’s a bit overwhelming.
This isn’t to say all hope is lost.
Of course there’s still beauty. And there’s still kindness. And there’s still goodness. Of course there is. And thank all the heavens and earth for that.
But, without realizing that we needed clear, active boundaries, we’ve passively allowed certain energies to take over our brains, our relationships, and our own perspectives.
More than anything, though, we need to come together. We need to remember our shared humanity. We need reminders that we share a space with others. That those others have different views from our own.
I know a lot of factors prevent people from engaging with each other. I know there’s genuine, totally legitimate fear. I know there’s outright inability to know where to start. Longstanding structural institutions made sure some voices remain louder than others.
And I also know, more than anything, that the ways we’re currently engaging with each other on a regular basis (namely, social media) are amplifying the differences rather than finding the similarities. So we’re training to believe and become extremes.
I’m a practicing optimist.
It is a practice and it takes practice.
I am optimistic that we can connect. We can remember our connections. It’s thrilling to find ways to connect to others we may otherwise disagree with. Connecting to ourselves will help us to remember the things our doom scrolling has made us forget.
We can reconnect to the world around us. Not for the sake of the post or doing it for the plot. We can do it to remind ourselves that we are part of nature. And, in doing so, maybe get back in touch with some of the angels of our better nature.
Because if a tree falls in the woods and nobody posts about it, it still makes a sound.
It’s not just that we can or should do these things. We have to. The more we procrastinate them, the harder they get to do. Legitimate, powerful influences are actively keeping us from doing this. The longer we wait, the stronger they get. And the less opportunity we may have to do them.
Let this be the miracle motivating moment that reminds to you reengage with the world around you.
If we’re not intentional about being the people — or at least the person — who actively tries to be present, purposeful, and connected to others around us, we can turn into the mindless default who never realizes their personal potential.
If not now, when? If not us, who? Go, be brave. Go, be brave.
And now, please enjoy this picture of a high school me on Spirit Day. How this chick never went pro is truly beyond me.
