Dial it Down

A few weeks back, a Provincial election in B.C. kicked off. The day the election was “officially” announced, I received an email from a political party that led with the following sentence: “Today, the most important election campaign in BC history begins.” This same chorus is being sung for other elections. A potential Federal election in Canada is being foreshadowed as the most important ever as well. In the US and their pending US Presidential election, democracy itself is, apparently, on the line. Not just elections are built up into the most important things ever, but other issues. We are surrounded, it seems, by crises. We’re told we have a climate crisis, an affordability crisis, a homeless crisis, an Opiod epidemic, and many more. Our media inflames our sentiment and clamors about catastrophes constantly.

Where we believe the issue implies imperative intervention, we subscribe to the ends justify the means. This mentality drives a win at all costs approach to a zero-sum game. Honesty, transparency, and accountability are casualties of this approach. It becomes a dirty battle done down in the gutter inspiring sentiment like that expressed by Lord Melbourne, a British Prime Minister from 1835 to 1841, who apparently said to his party members, “It doesn’t matter what damn lie we tell, so long as we all tell the same lie.” This game creates disdain in those of us watching it from the outside. The last thing reasonable people want is to be any part of this process. There’s no virtue in being WAAC’d. A Win At All Costs attitude shouldn’t be inspiring, it should be terrifying.

Building any issue into a crisis doesn’t bring out our best. The decriers of doomsday scenarios aren’t helping. When faced with existential crises, we typically respond in one of two ways. Either we give up and figure the problem is so big we can’t do anything about it, or the problem is so big we are justified in using any means necessary to force an outcome. Neither brings out our best. The options of apathy or aggression shouldn’t be appreciated.

On a Friday evening this past August, a thunderstorm roared through our rural area. The wicked wind whipped up waves on the lake that knocked boats loose from their moorings. Boats smashed into each other and drifted with the weather to places they weren’t supposed to be. Some sunk and some were smashed against rocky edges of the lake. On land, the wind worked its way through trees knocking several over. Shingles were ripped from roofs. If you weren’t exposed to property damage, you were certainly inconvenienced by extended power outages and loss of communications networks for hours.

A neighbor across the road from us had the roots of two sixty plus foot tall trees come loose toppling the trees. The trees were left leaning on deck railing and roof. Things didn’t look good. I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the kitchen under the roof bearing the weight of these trees. Unfortunately, there’s no 911 to call for tree misery. It was three days later that the homeowner was able to find someone to come by to look. A truck rolled up late afternoon on the Monday following the storm. Two people calmly walked around the lot, took some measurements, and assessed the situation. They left and the next morning another two people pulled up to manage the mess. They didn’t come with heavy equipment like a crane to lift the trees. They strung some cable from one of the fallen trees to a nearby one that was standing solidly. One individual climbed the good tree to locate the cable. He then worked his way up one of the fallen trees cutting branches off with a compact chainsaw. As he got as high as he was comfortable, he started to cut the tree down in chunks. He lobbed off a four-foot length of log and dropped it to the ground. The log pieces fell harmlessly to the base of the tree. With each piece dropped, the threat to the home reduced. The other worker would collect the fallen pieces whether branch or log and drag to another area creating piles to be cleaned up separately.

Slowly but surely, one of the fallen trees was cut down. Our tree-faller worked his way back down the tree and repeated the process on the second tree. Branches were cut down and then the tree chopped down in parts. The work was done without issue. After just over three hours of work with the help of human hands, a chainsaw, and some cabling, the looming threat of logs leaning on a home had been managed. Calm and clean the team worked its skill. What the homeowner reasonably considered a crisis, these people patiently pursued a process to manage.

That same weekend, I watched an interview between Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr after RFK Jr had just announced limiting his bid as an independent for US President. Near the conclusion of the conversation, RFK Junior mentioned, “Nothing’s a crisis. Everything’s a task.” He saw his job as to show up and do the work required whatever it was. He was about dialing things down and doing your part. Progress follows plodding along patiently. This is something to admire in first responders and workers like our tree fallers. Obstacles aren’t existential events requiring extensive handwringing. They’re simply problems to overcome by patient pursuit of a process.

The wise aren’t whipped into a wild-eyed, fear-induced panic. It’s not fun to spend your day brooding in a boiling bowl of cortisol chowder while the world around you screams louder and louder. Run from those intent on playing the game of inflaming. Chaos isn’t constructive. Panic isn’t productive. Instead of amplifying angst, dial it down (DID). Try to offer the balm of calm. Our ability to manage problems can only be enhanced by deescalating tension and focusing on a process. Put your head down and take a step. Seek the salve of the steady. Do the work. Our role models of restraint reflect Alan Saporta’s statement, “The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.” We’re aspiring to adopt the posture presented by former US politician, John Gardner, who offered, “We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” In other words, life’s a problem, you’re the solution.