How to Be More Like the Squash Plant
The Veggies Get It
Mark planted seeds in rows this spring: cucumbers in a line here, radishes in a line there, carrots in lines here and here. Later we placed vegetable starts where we thought they made sense. After weeks of Portland heat - then - rain - then - sun - then - showers, our garden exploded, seemingly overnight. A mystery squash vine now heads skyward through the volunteer tomato’s wire supports. Raspberries stretch out of their assigned plot, inviting green beans to climb their fruit-laden stalks. Snap peas lean on broccoli leaves. Who knows where the potato plants came from, but they’ve carved out space to thrive, too.
That same energy is coursing through our nation. Have you noticed? Especially among young people. From all we’ve been weathering — some of us for weeks or months or years, others for generations and centuries — humanity is busting out of its artificial constraints, reaching for the light.
We could expend resources retraining everyone to stay in their lanes, but why would we? What would be gained, other than an illusion that we’re in charge of Nature? The tangled growth is clearly more honest and productive than our well-laid plans. Earth’s ingenuity knows no bounds; she seeks balance and favors diversity.
May Our Imaginations Roam as Freely as Our Pumpkin Vines
Nature never intended for some humans to accumulate all the rich soil, full sun, clean water, and space to breathe deeply while others are trampled on, choked, and relegated to cracks in the pavement. Let’s seize the momentum that’s been unleashed and use it to create a better system for everyone.
“Imagination is so powerful that it could set forth 400 - 500 years of something wrong, which means it very well could set forth 400 - 500 years of something right.”
So, what do you want our collective future to look like?
Our summer homework assignment — and the never-ending challenge of our lifetimes — is to design something truer and help it emerge.
Seriously. Let’s imagine it, write it down, draw pictures of it, discuss it with our friends and family and co-workers, and keep talking about it and conjuring it until it becomes the new normal. That’s how white supremacy became the foundation of this country, after all. A small group of people invented the concept of “race” and codified it into law, then used those laws to amass wealth for themselves at the expense of those whose race they labeled inferior. They built a whole nation out of this evil little notion and lulled many of us into believing it was just the way things are.
Let’s beat those connivers at their own game. We, too, can make grand plans, and spread our ideas until they stick. Only ours will be Beautiful and Just and Humane.
This Game is Urgent
I make a living with my imagination, but anyone can — and must — do this work. If you’re still able to dream like a kid, that’s a plus.
Note: Thinking of this as a game helps my creative juices flow, but keep in mind that people are dying while they wait for our solutions. It’s not optional, it’s urgent.
Ground Rules
The only rules are:
No censoring yourself because your idea is “not realistic” or “doesn’t make sense” or “would be too hard to implement.” (See white supremacy above and be bold for justice!)
Your ideas must benefit more people than they restrict.
The goals are wholeness, unity, and equality. That’s how we all win.
Ready, Begin.
I’ll get us started by sharing the vibrant jumble in my brain. Some ideas are my own, and some I borrowed from the zeitgeist.
Create a scale that rates occupations according to their Importance to the Well-Being of Humans & the Planet. A score of 1 = critically important; a score of 20 = destructive to both. Award salaries accordingly. For example, child care workers, pregnant women and those who care for them, new moms and dads, organic farmers, and yoga teachers would each score a 1. Professional athletes would earn less than teachers, but more than hedge fund managers, and so on.
Make parenting classes universally available, community-based, and normalized. Provide ongoing support for parents and families at all stages of life.
Provide comprehensive sex education to all pre-teens, teens, and adults who missed it; focus on communicating with and respecting your partner; encourage contraception use.
Require presidential candidates to pass the Foreign Service Exam, or at minimum, a high school exit exam.
Create a wealth drainage outlet, like how sinks and tubs have a drain hole near the top. Once an account or a portfolio gets too full of assets, the overflow would go to a general fund to help people with less wealth in their container.
Disconnect health insurance from employment, and cover everyone. Unburden employers and stop forcing people to stay in jobs they hate in order to keep their health benefits.
Educate everyone about actual US history. Pay reparations to the descendants of slaves.
Make the effects of trauma widely known, and help people recognize patterns of abuse. Believe children.
Listen to women. Especially women of color.
Make visual arts, performing arts, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and gardening the core school subjects. Teach other subjects in the context of those activities.
Limit heads of companies to earning no more than 10 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee (including all the perks), instead of the current average of 278 times.
Hoarding was recently added to the DSM-5, officially classifying it as a mental disorder. Amend this to include wealth hoarding, and provide treatment to all who are afflicted.
Like Take Your Daughter to Work Day, create a Live in a Housing Project for a Week program for billionaires and politicians. Convene with residents to draft housing legislation.
Require lawmakers and the president to send their own offspring into battle if they decide that war is necessary.
Start a Pension Share program where those with More Than Enough contribute monthly to those with Not Enough.
It’s easy once you get the hang of it. I’ve got plenty more where those came from, because creativity is a muscle, and I work out. 🤓 💪🏽🏋🏽♀️🎨Feel free to help me spread and implement whichever ones resonate with you. These are open source.
Now It’s Your Turn
Which ideas do resonate with you? Also, I’d love to hear your vibrant jumble of ideas. Score extra credit by posting below or emailing them to me. 😉 Write things down, share them around, then start making them true. Designing better systems into existence is THE ONLY WAY we change the world for Good. It all starts with the imagination.
Pro Tip: Use this as a 4th of July activity, especially if you’re not in the mood to celebrate the traditional holiday.
Bonus Challenge
Try this: The next time you’re feeling deflated and defeated by All The World’s Problems, sit down with pen and paper (or your keyboard — whatever mode you use) and imagine your way out of the doldrums. Write about what you want to be true for yourself and others. Adding doodles will, of course, infuse it with more power and magic. You’ll see that it works, both for changing your mindset AND for organizing your closet, if that’s your current struggle. Your paper will become a tangled mess of goodness, just like our garden!
Alternatively, dig your fingers into the soil, drag your toe through wet sand, or poke your nose into a flower. Nature’s got your back, and she’ll shift you back into balance.
To hear Jason Reynolds talk about the importance of Imagination, click here.