The Privilege of Peacetime Problems
And a moment for gratitude
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Your dishwasher broke and the replacement won’t arrive for six more months.
Every one of your top-choice grad schools rejected you.
Your manager undermines you in meetings with your CEO.
The funding round you’re raising just got torpedoed when your lead investor pulled out.
Your spouse can’t seem to land a job and you’re worried about saving enough to buy a home.
All these problems come with their own psychic pain. Stacked atop your other worries, the weight can feel crushing. Some days you wish you could trade your problems for anyone else’s.
Then the sirens start to blare. A pair of jets roar overhead. In the distance, there’s an explosion, followed by a dull boom. War has come for you, your family, and everyone you know.Â
Your head starts spinning with questions. Do you flee for safety or take up arms to defend your home? How will you keep your family safe? What if your city loses power? What if famine comes to your country?
Gunfire erupts in the street outside. There is no going back. No going back to a time of broken dishwashers and grad school rejections. No going back to peacetime problems.
Friends,
Sorry I’ve been a bit delinquent with this newsletter. Between the events of the world and the work of building Invisible College, I’ve had trouble shipping quality writing these past few weeks.
Amid these tragic events, I hope you find a few moments for gratitude. Not the kind of gratitude that’s tinged with guilt, but the real stuff. For the heater that warms your home. For the food that sits in your pantry. For your civil liberties and healthy family members.
We have many things to be grateful for, and I for one, am resolved to give those things a larger share of my conscious mind.
Until next time,
– Nick
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