Taking care, in the real world.
There is no power, no wealth, no amount of followers or likes, that can compare to the joy of clean air, clean water, a safe place to live, nourishing food, and the love of our companions.
It’s a new year, and like every new year, it will bring change. Before we look ahead, let’s take a moment to look back.
As 2024 drew to a close, we lost an icon of a caring orientation to our human family: James Earl Carter II, the 39th President and peace crusader. He lived to be one hundred, and mercifully died before 2025 could ring in an administration contradictory to everything he stood and worked for.
While the tech bros and the white nationalists fight it out on social media - apparently believing more in their own internet-based pseudo-heroicism than in anything that would truly help people - President Carter lived firmly rooted in the analog world, building homes for families, traveling the world as an observer for free and fair elections, bringing world leaders to meet in person to broker peace accords. A generational thing, maybe, and also an object lesson in the dangers of believing the digital world is a real space.
No president (or human) is perfect, and President Carter made mistakes. But his purpose was always crystal clear: the good of the world, the country, democracy at home and abroad. He was not in office to make himself or his cronies richer - his post-presidential life proved that. And, bizarre though it is, we have to say that he did not seek office to keep himself out of prison. (ICYMI, seventy-some million people voted for a convicted felon in 2024. To be president.)
President Carter’s life and legacy include the near eradication of the plague of Guinea worm disease, and his almost eight-decade marriage to Rosalynn, a true partner. His successes were always “ours.” (ICYMI, seventy-some million people in 20204 voted for a self-proclaimed sexual abuser who was found civilly liable for sexual assault. To be president.)
As we head into 2025, in honor of President Carter, Rosalynn Carter, their commitment to world peace, economic opportunity, and public health, and their absolute insistence that contributing to the well-being of others is our highest and best calling, let’s keep ourselves firmly rooted in analog world as well. This world - of soil and rock, plant and air, fire and water, of touching and loving one another - this is where life truly happens. This is where we do what matters. Stay out of digital-empire wars. Don’t sell your attention to the would-be digital emperors. Take care of yourself, your family, your neighbors, your world wide community. Take care of your part of this beautiful planet that is our one and only home.
There is no power, no wealth, no amount of followers or likes, that can compare to the joy of clean air, clean water, a safe place to live, nourishing food, and the love of our companions on this journey.
Let’s make 2025 a year of taking care. In the real world.
