Sit in the middle of things 🧘‍♀️🪻

In some parts of Stockholm, the lilac has appeared. The one I walk past every morning with the dog is still in bud, tiny purple fists waiting to relax. It will come as no surprise to say: I love spring. I used to be an autumn person, but the ceaseless optimism of spring gets me every time. I can’t believe we get to enjoy this year on year – the first crocuses, pushing up through hard, too-cold ground; the clattering trill of the fieldfares chasing magpies away as they return on mass to our lawn; the sudden explosion of pink, fragrant blossom on the cherry trees. What more could you want from life, truly, than the fleeting delicate beauty of spring?

Which brings me to a question that I have been hearing and pondering a lot lately: what is it that we really want? Because I don’t think it’s to be in Teams meetings or sitting in offices. Is it?

Yes, yes, refer me to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (Or, my preferred hierarchy of needs.) But I’m not talking about needs, I’m talking about wants.

Today’s society prioritises a number of wants: success, wealth, and intelligence. You can say what you like about family values and harmonious communities – but look at who has the lion’s share of money and power, who makes the decisions. It’s business men with high IQs and low empathy. Meanwhile, valuable vocations like carers, teachers, drivers, shop workers, and mothers are largely left on the back burner. Prioritising success, wealth, and intelligence looks like large cost-effective buildings, homogenised high streets, low social welfare and a constant feeling that we aren’t enough. 

Playing into this ideal of success is not something humans need. It has somehow been subsumed as “happiness” but chasing these goals only leads us down unfulfilling paths. Today, a radical act of protest is not allowing the way you earn money to define you. To not allow money to define worth, but just be a way to pay bills. To be able to see the inherent value of your life, simply because you are alive, is protest. 

So let’s deconstruct a little. Enjoy good news and rest, feed apples to horses and fall asleep under a tree.

But first, let’s read the rest of this month’s Spring… 

Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Buddhism

Over two thousand years ago, the Buddha said various things about the benefits of Loving Kindness (or Mettā) meditation: better sleep, protection from danger, deep concentration, a bright complexion and easy death. But today, research has proven that it has tangible benefits on body and mind. 

Loving Kindness meditation is a practice of generosity. It begins with a deep loving acceptance of yourself: may I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live in peace, no matter what I am given, may my heart be filled with love and kindness. Then, you extend your prayer to another person who is very dear to you. May they be safe…, and so on. Finally you send the prayer to all living beings – even the ones you find difficult to love. 

In 2008, Barbara Frederickson and her colleagues found that practicing seven weeks of Loving-Kindness brought higher feelings of love, joy, contentment, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, amusement, and awe. Various studies have shown that Mettā decreases pain, PTSD symptoms, and schizophrenia disorders; while increasing grey matter in the brain (the part that is used for information processing and emotional control, larger grey matter is linked to better memory and lower cognitive decline). It even slows the cellular aging process – where chronic stress shortens the telomere “caps” that sit on either side of the chromosomes, Mettā practitioners present with comparatively longer telomeres. So Buddha’s claim of a shining complexion? Not far from the truth! 

Cat, I farted

In a sea of news about ChatGPT variously ravishing water supply, encouraging memory loss, and spreading misinformation, a ray of light that only us humans can enjoy: in French, the name “ChatGPT” sounds like “chat, j’ai pété”, which means: cat, I farted. So while we’re all worrying about AI taking our jobs, in France the newsreaders are wearing serious faces while reporting that “cat, I farted” may be negatively affecting student learning development.

This week I saw a micro-vlog on the effects of large language models (like ChatGPT), and the comments put something into words that I hadn’t been able to express. “I didn’t ask for AI,” said one. “How do I turn it off, I don’t want it on my search results?” another asked. “Why is the tech industry forcing this on us?” wrote another. 

It’s true. The tech industry rolled it out like the main event at a circus performance and expected us all to coo and throw roses, which we did for a while. But now we see the unrestricted thundering pace it takes, and the billionaires at the helm riding atop their Cybertruck chariots. Look! They say: now businesses only need half the number of employees working twice as hard! And tech CEOs have responded in kind. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said that there will be no new headcounts approved unless they can prove that the work can’t be done by AI. Capitalism is in the process of engorging itself.

Goldman Sachs suggested 300 million jobs could be lost to AI – a staggering 25% of the global market. The least affected areas will be those society traditionally devalues, high-labour jobs like construction, installations, repair and care. (At the moment at least, it also doesn’t look like creative writers are relieved of their posts.) 

What this might mean, though, is that we all have to find something else to do. If I allow myself a little optimism, then I can just about see it. Hyperintelligence will be covered by the machines, and thus, devalued. Wealth will be hoarded by the weird, pale tech billionaire overclass, and the rest of us will have to grow vegetables, take care of each other, share homes, mend our clothes, and give up the illusion of ‘hustle culture’. Maybe we won’t be able to afford our computers and Netflix subscriptions, and so we’ll write stories and organise little performances to entertain each other. Well. A girl can dream.

https://i.chzbgr.com/full/10360939776/h8A24F577/art-matters-even-if-isnt-making-money

The Good News
By Thich Nhat Hanh (1992)

The good news
they do not print.
The good news
we do print.
We have a special edition every moment
that we need you to read.
The good news is that you are alive
and the linden tree is still there
standing firm in the harsh winter.
The good news is that you have wonderful eyes
to touch the blue sky.
The good news is that
your child is there before you,
and your arms are available.
Hugging is possible.
They print only what is wrong.
Look at each of our special editions.
We always offer the things that are not wrong.
We want you to benefit from them
and help protect them.
The dandelion is there by the sidewalk,
smiling its wondrous smile,
singing the song of eternity.
Lo! You have ears capable of hearing it.
Bow your head.
Listen to her.
Leave behind your world of sorrow
and preoccupation
and get free.
The latest good news
is that you can do it.

~~~~~~

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