In Search of Stability and a Sump Pump
I don’t know about you, but I guess I was hoping 2021 would usher in a few fewer “unprecedenteds” than the last 4 or so years. I mean Trump WASN’T reelected, right? But it would seem that ever since the January 6th attacks on the White House, we’ve been in a constant state of Mercury in Retrograde, even though Mercury has actually been pretty stable since June 21st. Tell that to Haiti, California, Oregon, Canada, Cuba, Germany, India, the stock market, the mask-less kids on the party bus spreading Delta as they headed down Columbus Avenue, and the sump pump in my cellar.
I’m not sure if Elsa traveled up the East Coast last week specifically to have a few too many cocktails in the tri-state neighborhood, but it felt that way. Especially when the sump pump in my cellar that’s been trying to manage our increasingly erratic stormy seasons gave up draining from my yard. That was my second flood in 6 years. And I’m on “high ground”. Doesn’t sound good to me. You? Nope. Especially since I survived BOTH hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012) with no problems in my cellar.
To be fair, I thought we’d have another “severe climate crisis” in New York before we’d have a pandemic, but I was wrong. Covid came first. What I wasn’t wrong about is that the two are inextricably connected. Global Human Health = Climate Health. No matter what deniers are saying. And if we’re not careful (which we’re obviously not being) with our treatment of our fewer and fewer resources, we will see a number of long ancient diseases, at least in the first world, return.
When Covid arrived, I had more than a bit of a flashback to the strategic communications work I’d been doing with the Harvard School of Public Health in 2013 and 2014. At the time, the dean, Julio Frenk, and I had an extended interview about his concerns and predictions of at least 5 pandemics in the next ten years. So, if you’re counting, we have 4 more to go. (And no, the variants don’t count).
As the former Minister of Health in Mexico, Frenk had already seen a number of global health crises surface, and his concerns were much more Biblical in size and scope. Diseases like Malaria, that was all but eradicated in the 19th and 20th century would sweep back as mosquitoes adapted faster than other species to the rise in heat and water level. Locusts would take wing to places that couldn’t control them, causing global food supply issues, (that’s actually already happening in Africa). And the melting Arctic Permafrost would unleash dormant microbes deeply frozen for millennia in “stronger than concrete” carbon sinks around the arctic circle.
All of this is to say, we need stability, and we need it now. Especially within ourselves. We cannot rely on our leaders alone, no matter how courageous their efforts might be, to solve the anxiety and instability we’re feeling in our lives, homes and communities. Now is an opportunity for you to find your own voice and ask yourself, how can I be a solution here? What strength can I contribute? And take the first step towards being the stability you and we need.
Holly Lynch is a 20+ year communications veteran and life-long social impact advocate and strategist who has helped individuals, educational leaders, and companies tackle the toughest challenges in their worlds.
Having survived countless life setbacks and two rounds with terminal cancer, while seeing the country-wide collapse of the systems and safety nets for the most vulnerable in and outside our communities, she is now shifting her life and career trajectories to focus on coaching those facing down fundamental shifts and transitions as they try to navigate and rebuild their lives, institutions and businesses during these unprecedented times.