I finally got to go back to coaching my Special Olympics Golf Team today. For whatever reason, my passion (some have called it "addiction") for the game waned this year. The last round I played was in January, so I wasn't sure how I would feel coaching the team this year since I've been off the course, literally and figuratively, for so long. But at the end of the practice, I found a renewed joy for the game--and it wasn't because I birdied the first hole using an athlete's driver and then holing out the last two strokes using only the pitching wedge I carry during practices. The joy came from watching the athletes' pure elation from playing the game and my realizing how much I care about my players.
Every year I become somewhat anxious over the first practice as I try to plot out the season and brace for the work ahead. But I forgot that the anxiety all melts away the minute we greet each other with hugs and talk about how everyone has been. It's this element of Care that seems to make everything right. And it's Care that empowers me to teach a Special Olympics athlete how to play the often-frustrating game of golf.
Taking it a step further, I think the element of Care is missing from the systems approach to sustainability. Last year I completed a program in Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School and had a life-changing session with Peter Warshall. The session was a lesson in Systems, but was taught by a walk around the Presidio and down to Chrissy Field in San Francisco. Along the way, Peter pointed out how nature works in systems; from flowers using color and shape to dictate what insect or bird they use for pollination/reproduction to how the bay's tides shape the sand and feed the plants and animals in the marsh. Peter calls on "The Four C's of a System". Components, Configuration, Community and Connection. I used to think the critical "C" was Connection. However, taking the Four C's into our daily lives, we need to add a fifth "C": Care. It was this element of Care that became the focus of the course as we learned to identify what people cared about in order to create positive environmental change in business.
Beyond the practice of bringing sustainability into business through revealing what--and strike me down for using consultant-speak--"stakeholders" care about, it's time for people to dig deep and embrace what they care about. Going beyond the easy answers of "Family" and "My Dog," we need to ask ourselves what it is we really care about and, once discovered, diligently apply ourselves to really taking care of it.
What do I care about? Our future. I'm not all too concerned about "saving the planet" because I know nature has its own effective recall system pulling defective product off the shelves; and that if left to its own devices, nature and the planet will heal itself. My concern, though, is that the next item to be recalled will be "Humans" because it seems to me the planet would be much better off without us stomping around depleting resources like we own the joint.
As a father, I want my children to be safe, healthy and happy. The basic result of Care. For our planet, if boiled to its most simple expression, I pretty much want the same things. But for that to happen, more people (a critical Component of the system) need to figure out how they value their own safety, health and happiness. For me, discovering what I care about has helped to give me the momentum to get out of the plug lie of getting up, going to work, taking care of the kids, going to bed, lather, rinse, repeat.
What can you do if you also care for the future of people on this planet? Think about your place and function within the natural system. Americans consume 24% of the world's energy. And the "average individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world's population lives on 25 gallons." So I'm a big fan of "Reduce" and 'Reuse." I like "Recycle," but that act means you haven't really reduced and are likely eschewing reuse. Think about how you can use less. Conserve. Buy less frequently. At the very least, please stop buying bottled water. And (shameless self-promotion coming...) read this blog.
Each day presents the gift of an opportunity to make things better. Why wouldn't you open this gift?
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