“That radical change needs to focus on not only preventing apocalypse but also building up a picture of a future that’s worth fighting for. Imagining the world as a burning hellscape is, for some reason, much easier than imagining a world where we come together and build a new version of human society that works for every person and every species. We’ve got to do the hard work of fashioning a culture of radical, unrepentant, courageous hope.”
– Eric Holthaus in The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming
How do you stop staring into the hellscape that the echo chamber of mass and social media have you convinced is the only option? We have a responsibility for (re)kindling our own imaginations.
How do you do that? Not through doomscrolling and absorbing countless mindless memes. Here’s a few ways to get yourself unstuck:
- Cultural Centers
Go visit a museum; see what free or discount passes your library offers, or look for days when admission is free. When you’re there for free, there’s less pressure to try to see every single object so that you feel like you got your money’s worth. No museum that I have ever been to makes you take a test before or after visiting; it doesn’t matter if you know a lot or absolutely nothing about what is on display in the galleries. You can read the wall text, do audio tours, take a guided tour, or none of those things, choosing to decide for yourself what it is you’re viewing. The latter means you aren’t experiencing the facts, but if your purpose is to get your mind working differently, so what?! When I check out a new exhibit and I’m enjoying it, I’ll usually go through twice (at least): once in the obviously intended direction, and then backwards.Besides museums there are galleries, theatres, coffee shops that host events.Bring a friend. Go alone. Just get out and try something new. I publish a monthly event calendar that should give a few ideas for where to start.
- The Archives
What has already been done? Most of us know about sit-ins, marches, and things of that sort, but what else have people done? What have they created? One of my favorite local authors is Steve Thornton because he finds a way to tell Hartford and Connecticut stories, to remind us of all the work people have already done, even if we never heard about it before. You can lament not having learned this stuff in school and resign yourself to remaining ignorant, or you can make an effort to expand your knowledge base.If you’re lucky, you have unfettered access to historical newspapers and manuscripts. Even without that, you have access you might not realize just by holding a library card. That’s all that is required for using some free digital archives. Although it’s been closed for over two years now, the Hartford History Center located within the Hartford Public Library is set to fully reopen at some unannounced date in the future, and when it does that’s a physical location to visit and look at physical materials; for now, it is operating on a limited basis from one of the library’s branches and research questions can be sent to staff. For those who have money to spare, there are other research centers that charge a fee and give you opportunities to sit with primary and secondary documents.Sometimes, you get an inkling of an idea, but others (or ever you) might try to shut this down by convincing you that nothing like that is possible because it’s never been done before. Tell them (or your own brain) that it’s awesome to try new things and they can either help you do this, or they can shut up and get out of the way; or, your digging around might reveal that this idea has come up before, and if it did not pan out, you have the chance to figure out why, make adjustments, and refurbish that idea. Recycling: it’s not just for aluminum cans. - Our Bookshelves
I am literally talking about books, and also, talking about turning to the creative media that does not require you to even leave your house. The 100th and final episode of the From What If To What Next podcast aired in 2024, but you can still listen to all of them. Confession: I did listen to most episodes, but mostly skipped the ones that had subject matter I was less interested in; however, I still listened to the opening segment of each when he asked guests to imagine another world. To me, this was the main appeal of the podcast — hearing people talk about the world they wanted to live in. Not what they were against . . . what they wanted in another ten years. If you’re more of a reader than listener, check out “Ministry of Imagination” which is a textual highlight reel of the podcast.People who are Very Serious and Very Intellectual might not consider reading anything from the Romance genre, and I would suggest that if you are among them, you especially need this. And here’s why: SciFi/speculative fiction is not for everyone. But, you might get what you need by doing the research and finding authors who focus on Black Joy, Queer Joy, Trans Joy. In other words, there are people out there writing romances where the characters are being stubborn or foolish, or they have whatever circumstances to overcome, but they are doing this in a setting where they aren’t also having to navigate racism, losing health care, or risking deportation. Others are set in worlds where characters move around by foot, bike, bus, and train simply because the author has created for us a place in which the automobile is irrelevant. For those who have trouble imagining different realities on their own, authors are there to help you; some will do this without even requiring you learn about spacetime first.Reading is one of those enjoyable hobbies that people seem to drop the moment their lives experience a little stress or upheaval, which feels like exactly the time to get more into reading. (Prime example of a time to rest, not quit on something) Unlike a lot of hobbies, you don’t have to invest in all kinds of equipment to participate. Between a library card and free neighborhood libraries, this can cost you zero dollars. For me personally, audio books aren’t reading because I’m not able to take in fictional stories that way, but if this works for you, then yes, of course it still counts. The library has books on CD, books on tape, and electronic versions to put directly on your phone.Need peer pressure? That’s what book clubs are for. Look for them at the library, your local indie bookstore, those cultural centers like museums, on sites like Meetup, use a search engine, or see if anything is tacked on a bulletin board at wherever you come across bulletin boards in life.
- Talk To Strangers
There’s value in talking to those who fall outside of the categories of family, friends, and co-workers. Talking to strangers means rebelling against what most of us were taught, and you know what? It feels good to say that not everything we were taught is correct, useful, or healthy. There’s a lot of space between talking to strangers and jumping into a stranger’s sketchy van, and we should be more nuanced with that when we tell it to our own children.Besides the possibility that you are the only person that stranger might speak to the entire day, they have something to offer you: unpredictability. I’m not saying your friends and family are boring, but if you are tuned in, then you know how most of those conversations are going to go. You don’t know a thing about the person waiting for the bus with you except that you’re waiting for the same bus, and even that, might not be true. She might’ve been waiting for the one that never showed which means she is now going to be late to an appointment in a building she has never been to before. Talking to strangers puts you at risk of hearing opinions you don’t agree with and stories that can be deeply sad. In the last year, strangers have told me about how they’ve overcome health issues, left the drug/gang life in the dust, and worked as a housecleaner for hoarding situations. None of those conversations even required I be the one to break the ice. All I needed to do was not have headphones, not look preoccupied, not look like I was afraid to chat with random people. We didn’t exchange emails. Nobody asked anybody for money. These were all one-and-done conversations, and that can be enough. - Spiritual Communities
Those who think they have all the answers along with those middle aged adults who are still wounded because their parents made them attend Sunday School decades ago can sit this one out.It’s going to wickedly vary from one faith/sect/place of worship to the next, but the ones that allow space for questioning and curiosity actually have something to offer because can you be more imaginative than listening to human origin (and in some cases, destination) stories? It’s possible to be utterly unconcerned with the historical correctness of anything and everything being said, while still asking if there is something here to be learned. Kind of like when you watch a movie or read a book — you don’t have to believe everything to be grounded in fact to walk away with something.Beyond what is in whichever book, this is another chance to talk to people. Before the rise of toxic individualism, this is a place people looked for and found community. Yes, there are problems caused by any organizations that put high value on homogeneity, and organized religion does not have a monopoly on that; and, not all spiritual communities want membership to be a bunch of sheep.
- Take A Class
One of the best/worst things I’ve done was take an improv workshop. It was uncomfortable and challenging, and it helped me become a better fiction writer. The skills are good ones, and can be used even if not in the think-fast-act-fast context of acting.There are plenty of low-committment and one-off classes and workshops — from free to inexpensive to pay-what-you-can to take-all-my-money — in the area. When you aren’t trying to get a certificate at the end of something, auditing saves a lot of money. Town art leagues are a place to look, as are coffee shops, libraries, and museums. Notice a trend here?
All of these suggestions, besides disrupting patterns of vanilla, status quo thinking do something else. I’m answering the silly question I hear asked way too much: how do you make friends as an adult? Get out and do something.