3/25/2023 0 Comments In promise or another tomorrow![]() ![]() And the stars look very different today.”īowie had a knack for capturing emotional complexity when confronted with unfamiliar circumstances. These lyrics drifted through my mind whilst sitting in my back garden, late in the night, looking up at the night sky with awe. Distant light from millions of years ago rained down on oceans, fields, cities and suburban back-gardens. ![]() #The promise of another tomorrow full#īright beams, full of secrets, whispers and profound unknowns. Less poetically - but no less important for that - the Department for Energy, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has noted a significant drop in air pollution. In Manchester alone, the UK measures that require people to stay at home, avoid transport and to only leave the house for essential jobs has facilitated a significant reduction in daily nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels. Swiftly, perceptibly, a change in our collective behaviours has had a profound impact. We can now see the stars that were previously hidden. What the world doesn’t need right now is another article starting with the phrase - ‘ In these strange and uncertain times’. We don’t need another lament detailing the sheer, relentless and society-levelling malice of the disease. It’s dreadful and it has - and will - affect us all in ways unpleasant and horrifying. We acknowledge the indiscriminate brutality of the virus. Yet - as we are constantly told - for most of us, these things shall pass. In the meantime, we have to tackle our current isolation. “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” If this is the case, then we are about to unleash an unprecedented torrent of problems as we wrestle with our enforced, mass solitude. Or is there an alternative? Could this time represent an opportunity to draw a line in the sand and attempt to do things differently? Could ‘sitting quietly’ instead be a catalyst to uncover much-needed solutions to our modern problems? #The promise of another tomorrow torrent# The tumult of the last 5 years of social and political confusion has crescendoed and we find ourselves at a crossroads. The practices of the past - so unthinkingly celebrated and reinforced by our day to day actions - are being reappraised. The futility of busyness over productivity becomes ever-more apparent. Our obsession with speed over meaning looks foolish. ![]() Our constantly distracted minds have been urged to sit with their own thoughts. The way in which we work, live, socialise, educate our children, even the very way we think is currently up for debate. The vague reassurances of getting things back to normal seem comforting. Normal is more enjoyable than lockdown after all. Yet from a human perspective, has the normality of work actually been damaging for the age we find ourselves in? Have we unwittingly, unthinkingly, tethered ourselves too unproductive, unhealthy and damaging working practices of the past? We need to explore where we’ve been before we unleash our collective efforts to return to ‘normal’. ‘Normality’ might not be our next destination. We have long-operated in a maddening contract with the state. One which demands adherence to a way of life that simultaneously grants us the illusion of reward whilst binding us to a set of behaviours that are likely to accelerate anxiety, reduce working performance and make our souls ache.įrom birth, through nursery and school, we are constantly exposed to rigid power structures. Ways of thinking and acting to prepare us for a lifetime of compliance. Some of us are lucky enough to break free during university experiences - personalising rhythms and working rituals that empower us to create great work on our own terms. #The promise of another tomorrow torrent#. ![]()
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