In a TED talk that is just as relevant today as it was right after the last Presidential election, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks speaks on ‘How we can face the future without fear, together’.
He begins, “We’ve seen divisive elections, divided societies and the growth of extremism — all fueled by anxiety and uncertainty. Is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear?”.
Sacks says, “it’s the people not like us, that make us grow” and goes on to share three specific ways we can move from the politics of “me” to the politics of “all of us, together.”
The part that stuck out the most to me, especially keeping in mind the mission of Don’t Block Your Blessings is his simple suggestion, which he says, “It might just change your life, and it might just help to begin to change the world. Do a search and replace operation on the text of your mind, and wherever you encounter the word “self,” substitute the word “other.” So instead of self-help, other-help; instead of self-esteem, other-esteem. And if you do that, you will begin to feel the power of what for me is one of the most moving sentences in all of religious literature. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” We can face any future without fear so long as we know we will not face it alone.
So for the sake of the future “you,” together let us strengthen the future “us.”