For the Love of a Bike...





 "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ~Thornton Wilder


Today, I rode home from work on my bike, Sandy.  We got caught in an epic down pour, and I couldn’t be happier about it. 

She is a great  companion for daily adventures!  I spend most of my career thinking about how to appropriately analyze and utilize information.  But life can’t always be lived by processing information in such a systematic manner.  Sometimes the most important gifts, the most beautiful moments come from just trusting ourselves to know what we need or want without over thinking things. 

That is what happened when I bought Sandy the Bike.  I hadn’t owned a bike since I was a teenager; and have been known to get scared and intentionally bail off of a bike in a preemptive move to avoid uncontrolled crashing.  So, you can understand why riding a bike in NYC would seem like a scary and stupid proposition.  Or so I thought, until……Hurricane Sandy.  After a week of hellish bus commuting post-hurricane, I was completely fed-up!  Staggering into the office after a retched 3-hour bus trip, my co-worker casually commented, “this is why I love to bike commute...”.  Something in me snapped - I decided to buy a bike… the next day, without a doubt, I would become a bike commuter; and the sooner, the better.  It actually took me 2 full days to find the right bike, but within 72 hours of my decision I had practiced and geared up for a 14-mile round-trip work commute. 

My co-workers and a few friends were mystified, perhaps horrified.  Their advice ranged from, “…don’t make a drastic purchasing decision during a time of stress” to “but you don’t ride bikes, and it will be dangerous, you could get hurt”. Still others were very supportive: “what a great source of exercise!”, “go for it – why not?!”.  I knew that I wanted a new way to explore my city, I didn’t want to be beholden to other forms of transit any longer, and I LOVE a challenge – Illogical/impulsive/impractical or not, I just knew that I wanted this, no other information needed.  Now, my bike commute is one of the happiest parts of my weeks, even in a summer down pour!

Today, for example, despite collecting precise information about the weather forecast, I found myself pushing on for 30 minutes in the rain (soaking wet and laughing about it most of the way). I finally had to take shelter at a bus stop when I could no longer see clearly.  At the bus stop, I met another cyclist who was waiting out the storm.  For twenty minutes I had an amazing conversation with a new friend – he worked in Rwanda; he and his girlfriend were thinking of moving to CO, where I am from; we exchanged stories of culture-shock upon returning to NYC; NYC burnout symptoms; etc.  Such enjoyable, spontaneous conversations rarely happen between New Yorkers, unless the conditions are just right (or just awful enough). It was a wonderful evening, full of life’s magic; and all because of my uniformed, under-analyzed decision to embrace my pal Sandy in my life.

Support vs. Freedom: A paradox within an anomaly (stolen from Doctor Who)



 “Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do - some... don't ever want to.” ~ The Cheshire Cat

"All civil law is nothing but the agreement of society of men, either by themselves, or one or more authorized by them, determining the rights, and appointing rewards and punishments, to certain actions of all within society." ~ John Locke
 





 

Late night, sitting at a café in NYC, eating something yummy but terribly unhealthy, trying to soak up the juice from a scotch tasting….Somehow, the conversation turned from a fashion faux pas at work to America’s supposed mixed-up understanding of socialism.  The examples presented were mostly from Europe - how Switzerland, for example, does a much better job with public education than the U.S.A. Then someone noted how American policy is determined mostly by capitalist greed and would do better with a socialist model.  Fast forward a few months, and I am sitting with another friend, who was sharing with me their conflict over giving money to a homeless person on the street.  My friend’s arguments were well founded and highlighted the complexity of such social issues, including the role of organized social services, the accessibility of jobs, and the potential for the use of their donation to go to something less normatively desirable, like drugs or alcohol. 

Ultimately, both conversations left me with the same feelings of being a bit torn between my own values and a bit befuddled by my own desire to find a middle ground to what feels like a deeply complex and important set of questions. So, I have been trying to untangle my thoughts.  On a side note - yes, I am thoroughly annoyed with myself for turning fun nights into months of intense contemplation!  There are a few pieces of media that helped me sort through my thoughts, which provide clear arguments in a manner that is much more compelling than my ramblings below (even if I don’t completely agree with every point):



Anyway, I think my frustration lies in the dichotomous nature that these conversations tend to take– As if freedom and support were at odds with each other.  Across the world, our interactions with the market, the investments we make in social welfare, and our decisions about when and how much to contribute to supporting an individual or a social service organization are fraught with major contradictions.

First, I don’t think that socialism and capitalism are fundamentally at theoretical odds with each other, at least not in the manner that they are commonly employed in modern debates.   We, as a human society, have negotiated the development of governing institutions (e.g. churches, land owners, employers, government) to help care for our collective and individual social needs; and, more recently, have demanded that those governing systems are given their legitimacy through liberal democratic processes.  On some level we have agreed that an institution that cares for the needs in society will benefit all of us in some way, and will distribute the weight of that care across members of that society.  Further, these governing institutions have some role to play in ensuring that the private sector is regulated, to the extent that it benefits the other participants in the market, producers and consumers alike.  The government is also well placed to ensure that most individuals will equitably contribute to a system that creates better education, roads, sanitation systems, social services, etc.  There is a real risk and cost to this system, which I must highlight here: by taking away some income through taxation to support government services, we do limit some individual choices of the tax payer. That is a trade-off that I am reasonably comfortable with…but it is a trade-off.

So, yeah, I guess I lean towards socialism when it comes to providing both social services and regulating the market!  BUT…..

I think a free(ish) and well-functioning market is also essential to a happy and health human society.  I believe this freedom is so important, in part, because I think each individual is best placed to make free and autonomous decisions to pursue their own happiness. However, I believe that markets cannot regulate themselves.  We have seen that there are too many flawed human interactions within the market system to assume that the theoretical functioning will not be tainted by the complicated humans within the system.  Thus, regulation is a necessary part of the market system we have created, and a democratic government happens to be the best placed institution to do that regulating (I won’t go further with this line of reasoning here, but feel free to argue with me about that massive chunk of ideology!).  That said, I am left asking: what does a “free” market mean on an individual level in the context of social services?

I believe strongly that the person requesting help should use the money they receive in the way they choose; and I also recognize that, for all humans, there are other factors that lead us to make less-than-ideal, less-than-healthy decisions on a daily basis.  So, why am I afforded that freedom?  Is it because I have a full-time society-approved job?  And if I did choose to share my income with someone else, why should they not be afforded the same freedom to choose how to spend that money? Well, that is a complicated argument, because the question then becomes: why do social support services/systems get to dictate the use of the support they provide to an individual on behalf of society?  And, if some people are struggling with issues that truly prevent them from working and contributing in a formal market economy, does that give society the right to remove their choice regarding how benefits are utilized….well, maybe.  That is the beauty of many welfare systems in the U.S.A. - they still afford some degree of choice regarding what school to attend, what groceries to buy, what medical provider to see, etc..  Indeed, most evidence shows that a well-established social welfare system has choice and freedom built into it; including additional services to support those who have some limits on their capacities to make choices (e.g. someone with a severe form of mental illness who finds some choices to be overwhelming; or a single parent who needs support to help sort through different options). 

To be honest, I am not frequently inclined to give money to the person on the street/subway who is asking for help, for a variety of reasons.  Although, I am happy to pay for my added enjoyment from a subway performance, and don’t think twice about how that contribution to the performer will be used.  On the other hand, I expect that my contribution to a social service program or to taxes for social services will go toward a “positive” or “healthy”, rather than “destructive” input into someone’s life; and I expect that the social service provider (government or otherwise) will define those norms in the same way that I do. The hypocrisy is that, when I was laid off of my first job out of grad school, I utilized unemployment benefits; and no one told me what I could or couldn’t spend that money on or asked me if I bought a whiskey with some of that income (I am sure I did!).

Finally, I also tend to support social interventions that lead to sustainable change and help individuals to gain more freedom and increased ability to interact with the market and society, eventually without support.  Realistically, however, not all social interventions can be directed in this manner, as some needs are on-going (e.g. for the elderly, or individuals with physical or mental disabilities).  I guess, like with all things human, the multi-dimensionality of these issues leads to a morass of contradictions.

Humanly Possible Part I: Questions and AFGEs




It has been a while since I posted, as I have been working on several interrelated ideas.  In an effort to start moving those thoughts from my head and into the cyber-world, I am using this post as an introduction to the experiences and questions that I have been chewing on over the past couple of months.  Just for clarification, this post is not meant to be a metaphysical quandary about what we can achieve if we simply visualize a better world or life; but, rather, is intended as a jumping off point for a more practical dialogue. Subsequent posts in this series will be written in a more concrete and less philosophical vein, and will share external resources and solutions that I have come across while mulling over the contemplations you will read below.  
 

'We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.'  - Eleanor Roosevelt
'Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.' - Albert Einstein


Earlier this year, I went to watch an acrobatic and dance performance with a dear friend.  It was breath-taking; and as we discussed the routines post-show, we wondered about how it could be “humanly possible” to do what these performers did.  They had practiced, refined, developed and adapted to be able to use their bodies in a manner that most of us have trouble conceptualizing.  About a month after this performance, I watched another show that came into town, the mighty storm Sandy.   New Yorkers now talk frequently about Sandra - the unexpected power of the wind and water, and the residual and insidious effects of stress on individuals and communities. We also discuss the surprising responses to the storm, for good and for bad - the government entities and communities that rose to the challenge in truly inspiring ways, but also fell far short in other ways.  Over that past year, I also experienced a personal crisis that has reframed much of how I think about public and social policy; and given me a heightened sensitivity to pain, struggle, and possibility in the world around me. As I healed from my hurts, I discovered that my personal strength and resources were deeper and more responsive than I had imagined.  I also re-learned that developing some strength is directly correlated with an active acknowledgement of current limitations.
Which leads me to these questions: What is humanly possible?  How do we effectively access our potential, while recognizing our restrictions?  How do we move past apathy, complexity, and pain to meet the major challenges in our world?

When someone in our family is going through a difficult time, we comfort each other with the wisdom of my grandfather: “You are so much stronger than you think or know you are.”   It may not seem like the most comforting thing to say, but it is very supportive.  The support comes in the acknowledgement that the burden being carried is scary, heavy and difficult and that no one else can truly carry your burden for you.  This support is an encouragement that, even if you need to stop and gather your strength, the strength and resources are already there to utilize. It is a way of calling out resiliency with a simple statement.  It is like the deep, directed breath that an athlete takes in, to remind the body that it is an interconnected system with oxygen and blood available to build and catalyze the muscle and stamina for the current challenge.  We have another saying in my family during times of struggle, a code word of sorts, AFGE (Another Fucking Growth Experience).  We say it to each other to avoid taking things too seriously; but also to focus on the lessons to be gained and not the problem alone.  So, how can we take this same approach to acknowledge societal challenges, and activate our shared strengths and resources to meet those challenges? How do we utilize our societal AFGEs to move forward and achieve more?

In the arenas of social policy, public health, and international development, we essentially focus on how to make the world a “better” place (trite and corny as that may look): more equitable, safer, more productive, with more liberty, more justice, etc.  Yet, we fall short of our aspirations - we move slower than we anticipated, we miscalculate interrelated dynamics, we are unprepared for events that derail our progress, we inefficiently allocate resources and we create unnecessary obstacles. It is essential to acknowledge our struggles and limitations in order to move past them; but there is also a danger that we might use this acknowledgement as an excuse for complacency and inaction. 
In short, we are limited, but we can do so much more with the resources we already have – History has shown evidence of this capacity; we are stronger and better than we think we are. 

Here are some of the limitations to effective social policy that I hope to address in subsequent posts, as we consider how to leverage our collective strengths to more fully meet the challenges in front of us:
o   Imagination and innovation – Seeing beyond what currently exists
o   Physical laws – Real barriers like hurricanes, climate change, and disease do exist
o   Big picture perspective – Humans have limited capacity to see all the variables at play and how they interrelate at any given moment
o   Personal needs – People are motivated and hindered by complex individual realities: financial, emotional, psychological, familial, ego needs
o   Coordinating resources– There are many efforts and resources that could be used and coordinated more efficiently if the time and resources existed to coordinate them  (now that is a conundrum!)

What are your thoughts?  I’d love to hear them!