Thoughts on Buoyancy
Sarah wrote about buoyancy in our last newsletter. When we discussed it as a team, the words of a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war came to mind. 'We must admit the brutal facts and never give up hope that it will get better." (The Stockdale Principle, named after Rear Admiral James Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking officer in the "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.) To me, that's buoyancy - the ability to hold those two things in tension.
The reality is there are facts about the world that I don't like; some I abhor. The data on homelessness, income inequality, racism, sexism, agism, wildfires in California, and water problems in Richmond, and the list could go on. I can't just sweep those things under the rug, pretending they don't exist. Accepting reality doesn't mean liking it or agreeing with it. It is just acknowledging the "brutal facts" of the situation. And, it's crucial not to dwell there.
The other side of buoyancy is the trust or hope that things will get better over time. If we dwell on all the things in the world that are not as we like them, then it’s easy to feel or become disempowered, bitter, and cynical. And that is a hard place to be. A friend once told me, "Cynicism is a buffer to commitment." I could get so disappointed with reality that I opt out of a meaningful commitment to working towards change. That trust or hope is what reminds us to claim our personal power and do our work in the midst of the challenging or brutal facts.
We are dynamic beings living in a dynamic world - life is changing rapidly around us. If we have hope with no basis in reality, we will sink under constant disappointment because we fail to acknowledge the reality of the water. And if we only acknowledge the brutal facts, we become stymied with inaction. It’s when we can acknowledge the brutal facts and maintain hope that things will get better that we can stay afloat.