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What will it take to create communities and nations that help all of us grieve, heal, and thrive?
December 16, 2021
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4 min
A couple of years ago, I was interviewed about my life sabbatical for a research project. I recently reconnected with the interviewer - DJ DiDonna -- and he updated me on The Sabbatical Project, noting that in an era which some are calling "the great resignation" there has been increased interest in his research on sabbaticals and also among people who feel they need one to reset their relationship with work and life. He wrote about this recently in Time in a piece entitled The Urgent Case for Sabbaticals for All. When DJ and I were talking, I was struck that it was nearly five years to the day that I had set off on my own 7-month long sabbatical, and that there are so many positive changes in my life that the experience contributed to – relating to work and relationships, travel and aligning my values and time. However, if I am being 100% honest, some of the practices that I built and served me well before the pandemic have become harder and harder to maintain during the pandemic era.
That being said, the interest that people – particularly professionals -- are expressing in sabbaticals does not surprise me. In the last two years alone, so many problems in how work and school and child and elder and health care have been laid bare. Earlier this week, the bells of the National Cathedral rung out 800 times in remembrance of the 800,000 Americans who have died from COVID, racial injustice and state violence is everywhere (at home and abroad) , and there has been a loss of what was many people’s ways of life. Our systems and institutions are not set up to support us to grieve, to heal, to thrive. And so - for those who can - the opportunity to individually work on resetting our relationship to those institutions and systems has grown more appealing and urgent.
I went back and reread what I wrote about my sabbatical in the year after it concluded. And I was struck that in the first piece I ever posted -- entitled What’s a life sabbatical and who is ‘allowed’ to take one? -- I wrote about the experience of taking a sabbatical not just through the lens of my own individual experience and the privilege to be able to do it, but also asking a bigger set of questions:
I want to figure out how we as individuals, as well as our institutions, communities, and systems can be better at encouraging and enabling everyone to embed periods and practices of reflection and learning into the rhythm of our lives. And I’m particularly interested in figuring out how we can do this with our brothers and sisters and gender non-conforming siblings who are people of color, and/or immigrated to the U.S., and/or are doing work to improve their communities while receiving low compensation.
When I wrote this in September 2017, I had no idea that there would be a global pandemic coming in 3 ½ years. But now that it has come, I’m feeling called to reframe these ideas and ask:
What will it take to shape communities and institutions, systems and nations that support all people to grieve, heal, and thrive?
I don’t have any answers. But, for the first time in my adult life, I see a movement people pushing back against the status quo when it comes to work and health, the need for a social safety net and solidarity – whether that’s the people quitting their jobs or labor organizing (including at my alma mater where 3000 grad workers are currently seven weeks into the largest strike in the country). It feels like an opening, an opportunity but it also still feels small as compared to the work of rethinking the cultural and institutional values and the mental models that shape the United States, its systems, institutions, communities and their relationship to every individuals’ humanity today. I don’t yet know where to get started on this question, or who to partner with. But, I’m sharing it with all of you – because I’ve learned in through my work, and throughout my life, and the when I don’t know, the best thing to do is ask.
