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"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering." - Ben Okri

A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

I like Janelle Monae's observations that the seeds of change sprout easily in inspiration, and that inspiration moves with the same ease and contagiousness as a rumor.

It follows that the act of creation—of ideation, design, modeling, exploration and testing—is a simple way to make sense of a world that is too often confusing and disempowering.

Envisioning a better world is not indulgence in naïve or ideological optimism. It is a practical step in the act of developing and nourishing a better way of being.

Can you imagine a world where the basic human needs of security, love, and self-esteem support every person to realize their most creative and self-actualized selves?

Let's try.

Happy Friday.

Culture, Hope
Since ancient times hope has been viewed as a bedrock of human thriving.

"There is considerable reason to believe that hope promotes health and well-being, and that hopelessness is toxic. Evidence suggests that hopeful people feel better, weather stress more successfully, and live longer.... Hope has been associated with cognitive flexibility and creativity and with academic achievement. Hopelessness, on the other hand, is associated with increased risk of developing hypertension and atherosclerosis, of myocardial infarction and cancer, of anxiety and depression, of cognitive decline, and of more severe PTSD symptoms. Among young people, hopelessness predicts violent behavior, substance abuse, and early sexual activity." - Howard Frumkin

Review: Hope, Health, and the Climate Crisis

Creativity
"Step 1: Wonder at something. Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you."

I've mentioned Austin Kleon several times. It was his advice about self promotion —"Write something that you would want to read"— that motivated me to write this letter.

He is prolific but perhaps best known for his book, Steal Like an Artist, 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. He says that he's learned these things while trying to figure out how to make art. "But a funny thing happened when I started sharing them with others," he says, "I realized that they aren't just for artists. They are for everyone."

Each of the ideas is woven together with primary weft themes. One is, "nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, and remix and reimagine to discover our own path." Another is to make the work we want to see in the world. Another is to "work out loud". He coaches us to show others what we are doing as we are doing it.

"The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work. Artists aren't magicians. There's no penalty for sharing your secrets."

Book: Steal Like an Artist, 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Manufacturing, Cooperatives
Rebuilding a diverse working class based on locally rooted wealth.

I love how good ideas seem to bloom concurrently. This week for example I sent my friend John Abrams a link. He is writing a book about the potential of combining the wealth held by retiring boomer business founders with the flexibility and agility of cooperative ownership structures. So I wanted to be sure that he'd seen this article: With Boomers Retiring, Worker Co-ops Are on the Rise.

He replied: "Yes indeed. I just got off the phone with Molly Hemstreet and Aaron Dawson of The Industrial Commons in NC. This is truly inspiring shit; they’re amazing. Not just talking - doing, in a very big way."

Bookmark that link. The site says that "The Industrial Commons founds and scales employee owned social enterprises and industrial cooperatives, and supports frontline workers to build a new southern working class that erases the inequities of generational poverty and builds an economy and future for all." As John says, they are doing this in ways that can be modeled, learned from and replicated.

In an inspiring video, Community Transformation in the Carolinas, Molly, who is Co-Executive Director of the Commons and the founder of a textile company called Opportunity Threads, says: "Manufacturing isn't the problem. It's really how we go about thinking about work to develop not only people but community as well. One thing we want to do with our work at the Industrial Commons is reclaim some of these words and give a new imagination and a new definition and a new pride to what industrial means, what rural means, what cooperatives mean, and then what a worker means."

Website: The Industrial Commons

Civics, Public/Private Collaboration
Sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening inequality, increasing nationalism and a decline in global co-operation. Oh my.

The Collins Dictionary named "permacrisis" the word of the year in 2022. They defined it as “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events."

We are clearly living in a state of permacrisis. This book, written by an ex-Prime Minister of the UK, the chief economic adviser at Allianz, and a guy who has been described as the richest self-made person in the City of London, provides some context and, dare I say it, hope. No, you won't hear these one-percenters using phrases like degrowth, but you will hear them being really clear that to move beyond our current crisis economic policy must include metrics such as health, education, housing, and ecological sustainability. Mimi Brooks wrote a good summary and review.

"...The only antidote to the current situation is an entirely new growth model – one which is a combination of moral injunctions and technical fixes, particularly in the life sciences, energy, and digital technology arenas. Yet while the inputs into growth, such as innovations and investments, make headlines, it is really the total sum of government and private sector actions, as well as conditions on the ground, that shape the growth picture determining economic fortunes.

"Going forward, shareholders and stakeholders are far more likely to demand sustainable growth-oriented investment. It is suggested that value will be measured differently, with social impact-weighted accounting taking precedence. In other words, the philosophy of ‘Profits over people’ has outstayed its welcome."

Book Review: Permacrisis Reviewed: A Blueprint for Global Economic Recovery

Culture, Myth
"Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!"

Virginia O’Hanlon. (Photo courtesy of her grandson, Jim Temple.)

"In 1897, on the advice of her father, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a short, inquisitive letter to the editor of New York’s since-defunct newspaper, The Sun, in which she sought confirmation of Santa Claus’ existence. The paper’s editor, Francis P. Church, soon replied to Virginia’s letter by way of an editorial, titled Is There a Santa Claus?, which went on to become, and in fact remains to this day, the most reprinted English-language editorial in history, and which has since spawned numerous adaptations." - Shaun Usher

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished." - Francis P. Church

Article: Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

Creativity
The walls between musical genres are very, very porous.

Watch Jon Batiste slide between classical, the blues and gospel and back in under a minute. Mind opening.

Video: Jon Batiste Transforms Beethoven’s Music

Communication, Typography
“Words of Type can be a resource where people can browse and look around to better understand typographic terms, in their own language.”

On her Instagram page Lisa Huang calls herself a "Latin and Hanzi scripts typeface designer". When she was first learning typography she was frustrated that the resources available seemed to either be only in English or only about Latin scripts. So she's changing that.

"Words of Type is an encyclopedia of typographic terms, illustrated and explained in multiple languages.

"Words of Type aims to be a useful and accessible tool for everyone interested in typography and type design, everywhere.

"It helps to know exactly what is being said, or written, or how to say something when it is about typography. And in more languages than English only." - wordsoftype.com

Article: Words of Type Opens Up the Multicultural Typographic Landscape for the Better

One-liners

Article: Reducing eco-anxiety is a critical step in achieving any climate action.

Article: A new US literary prize, The Inside, will be awarded by a jury of people who are currently incarcerated.

Article: Could visiting a museum be the secret to a healthy life?

Article: New PA school board president was sworn in on a stack of frequently banned books.

Article: An historic project in Maine shows that when dams are removed, a river and its fish can recover with surprising speed.

Playlist

Video: Over The Rhine, All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue

Singersongwriters/ multi-instrumentalists Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler have been writing, recording and touring together as Over the Rhine for 30 years. They've been married for 22 of those years.

Early in their performing career they were invited to perform some seasonal songs on a public radio station in Cincinnati. They were surprised by the enthusiastic response to their renderings of old carols. In 2006 they released their first full collection of original Christmas/holiday songs called Snow Angels. One of those songs is All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue.

By now they've released nineteen studio albums, including three holiday albums of original songs. Karin suggests that they've discovered a new genre of music: Reality Christmas.

Says Linford: "It’s true: if you’ve buried a loved one, or lost a job, or battled a chronic illness, that stuff doesn’t go away during the holidays. It can be a complicated season for many of us. And then their's family."

Website: Over the Rhine

Weekly Mixtape
Holiday songs that honor the midwinter blues, too.

Playlist: All I ever get for Christmas

Image of the Week

Adam Singer, the creative and get-it-done person behind Adam's Nest, one of our favorite P-town stores, posted this image on his Instagram page last Saturday, in honor of Pansexual Pride Day.

"Pansexual Pride Day is an annual celebration of the pansexual community, which recognizes, celebrates, and brings visibility to those who identify as pansexual. It is celebrated in December each year and is an important opportunity for pansexual people to come together, celebrate their identities, and advocate for a more inclusive society." - Adam Singer

Adam Singer in his shop, Adam's Nest. Photo by me.

What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
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You can learn more about me and my work here: mitchanthony.net

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