Living with Integrity While the World Falls Apart. As systems break down, we need tools for inner growth. This post reframes collapse as a moment for choosing who we’re becoming.
This hit like a tuning fork. The unilevel vs. multilevel disintegration frame gave language to what so many of us are feeling—collapse with no compass vs. pain that becomes a passage. I loved how you pair rigor with practices (inner peace, refusing to add hatred, “live the future now”) so it’s not just diagnosis but direction. Bookmarked the Hillesum/Roosevelt/Peace Pilgrim thread—quiet, bracing courage. Sharing this so others know they’re not alone in the “time of monsters,” and that transformation is still on the table.
Chris this is utterly inspirational and I know it to be true. The transformation has to be internal first. This is really what my 'belonging to myself' is about. I asked myself what an elder can offer to the future. My conclusion was that I must embody a bridge. Become a bridge that can offer a way forward that is grounded in ancient wisdom to my grandchildren and all of our grandchildren as they step towards an utterly unknowable world. For if we can move closer to our own true selves through beingness and intimacy with our cosmic and connected nature then our communal grandchildren can inherit something with enormous and durable possibility. Etty Hillesum modelled this as a great teacher and we can all model it to some degree. I want to offer my grandchildren sight of something internal and inextinguishable that will allow them to know their own internal safety no matter what they face and to hold active hope for their futures. The more of us who can engage with this, to any extent, the better. I am so grateful for your tenacity in tackling this with all your usual lucidity.
Davina, thank you so much. What you said about being a bridge makes so much sense. An elder who embodies a bridge for grandchildren stepping into a world we cannot map for them. Yes, this piece is from last year, but the situation that prompted it has not improved. Active hope, in your phrase, is still what I am trying to write toward.
I learned about Etty Hillesum thanks to Michael Piechowski's work on moral exemplars. He has written about her as someone who built internal ground while the external ground was being deliberately destroyed. Her writing is beautiful and inspiring.
This is easily one of the best things I have ever read, in both its honesty and vision for how to move forward. I appreciate this more than I can express.
Hannah, thank you so much. This means a great deal to me. I wrote this piece because I needed to understand what I was living through, and I'm glad it reached you.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much less lonely this made me feel. Subscribed paid and posted to all my socials. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Thank you, Lindsay! Sorry I’m only now seeing this! 🙈
This hit like a tuning fork. The unilevel vs. multilevel disintegration frame gave language to what so many of us are feeling—collapse with no compass vs. pain that becomes a passage. I loved how you pair rigor with practices (inner peace, refusing to add hatred, “live the future now”) so it’s not just diagnosis but direction. Bookmarked the Hillesum/Roosevelt/Peace Pilgrim thread—quiet, bracing courage. Sharing this so others know they’re not alone in the “time of monsters,” and that transformation is still on the table.
Thank you so much. I’m grateful this resonated and found its way to you. 🙏
Chris this is utterly inspirational and I know it to be true. The transformation has to be internal first. This is really what my 'belonging to myself' is about. I asked myself what an elder can offer to the future. My conclusion was that I must embody a bridge. Become a bridge that can offer a way forward that is grounded in ancient wisdom to my grandchildren and all of our grandchildren as they step towards an utterly unknowable world. For if we can move closer to our own true selves through beingness and intimacy with our cosmic and connected nature then our communal grandchildren can inherit something with enormous and durable possibility. Etty Hillesum modelled this as a great teacher and we can all model it to some degree. I want to offer my grandchildren sight of something internal and inextinguishable that will allow them to know their own internal safety no matter what they face and to hold active hope for their futures. The more of us who can engage with this, to any extent, the better. I am so grateful for your tenacity in tackling this with all your usual lucidity.
And I now see that this was written about a year ago. I thought whilst replying that this was recent. Comment still stands absolutely.
Davina, thank you so much. What you said about being a bridge makes so much sense. An elder who embodies a bridge for grandchildren stepping into a world we cannot map for them. Yes, this piece is from last year, but the situation that prompted it has not improved. Active hope, in your phrase, is still what I am trying to write toward.
I learned about Etty Hillesum thanks to Michael Piechowski's work on moral exemplars. He has written about her as someone who built internal ground while the external ground was being deliberately destroyed. Her writing is beautiful and inspiring.
Yes - and I found her a while ago from another angle and she both inspires me and breaks my heart around the circumstances she found herself in.
This is easily one of the best things I have ever read, in both its honesty and vision for how to move forward. I appreciate this more than I can express.
Hannah, thank you so much. This means a great deal to me. I wrote this piece because I needed to understand what I was living through, and I'm glad it reached you.
A fantastic piece, Chris. 🙏
Thank you so much, Elizabeth! 🙏❤️