Nailing It

Welcome to the second of three blog posts I will be publishing this week, all of which are based on videos that other people have made.

Sometimes You Get Surprised

Last time, I asked you to think big and consider what your ordinary paradise would look like as the first step in inviting you to join us in turning this country around, an invitation I also issue in first sentence of my book, Peacebuilding Starts at Home, which you can order by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

Now, I want to help you begin seeing a pathway for turning that vision of a better America into reality because, as the Australia reMADE people suggest toward the end of their video, it’s not enough just to determine what we want that future to be like. We have to get there.

That leads to a second video that I want you to watch.

And, this time, with a homework assignment to complete after you do.

As if often the case, there is a back story here.

On April 29, 2020, Gretchen and I were watching the PBS NewsHour. Toward the end of the show, Judy Woodruff announced that Kelly Corrigan was about to give her humble opinion about the pandemic and how we nailed it.

We had never heard of Kelly Corrigan. We didn’t like the humble opinion features. Stil, we were in the middle of the pandemic and marooned in our living room, so we watched.

And were blown away. Which led me into a deep dive into Corrigan and her work.

So, stop reading, watch the video, and then I’ll explain why her ideas about how to “nail it” came to be at the heart of my invitation to you to join is in our work.

How You Can Nail It

I immediately went out and book Kelly’s books, started attending sessions she held for her readers (see the next section), and became a fan of her own show, Tell Me More.

Ever since, I have been captivated by her idea of nailing it, because I keep finding myself coming back to two sentences in the middle of her talk about standing in the checkout aisle in the Safeway and then the one she uses to end it.

I felt outmatched by the thing in front of me.

So, right there, I told myself the story of the 2020 pandemic and how we nailed it.

We came, finally and forever, to appreciate the profound fact of our shared humanity and relish the full force of our love for one another.

Of course, didn’t nail the pandemic. George Floyd was murdered a few weeks after her segment aired. Then followed everything else that deepened the mess we were in.

But, we can nail the crisis we find ourselves in now.

A first step is to define your ordinary paradise.

The next is to put yourself in Corrigan’s shoes. Imagine that you are stuck. Maybe in a line at your equivalent of the Safeway. Maybe it’s something else.

But, put yourself through her mental exercise and think about what it will take for you—and by implication, for us—to nail it.

You don’t have all day. Her episode was just about three minutes long. Her wait at the checkout counter couldn’t have been much longer.

So, take about that amount of time and jot down (to quote another News Hour segment I don’t particularly like) your brief but spectacular answers to these two questions:

• ·What would you ordinary paradise look like? In the language Australia reMADE (and I) used, ask yourselfe: Who are we now? Who could or should we be, given the fact that we’ve been through a lot lately? Once you’ve done that, dream big.

• Then, do what Corridgan did at the Safeway that morning. Don’t do it about the pandemic unless it still touches your life. Rather, pick something else that keeps you up at night. It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; it can be something that has your community or your family stuck in a rut. Then, think about what it would take to nail it. That could be something(s) that you do on your own. And/or with others. And/or something done wholly by others.

Then click this link to send me your idea in an email, and we will get back to you by the time I post the third video in a couple of days. We will get back to you.

Between now and then, I will be writing about the third video that will help you take the tangible steps toward nailing it (spoiler alert: it comes from Jon Stewart).

Back to Your Ordinary Paradise Again—In a Very Cute Way

There’s also a second part to the back story.

Gretchen and I only met Lily Spence who introduced us to Australia reMADE and its video because we were randomly assigned to a breakout session with her at one of Corrigan’s meet and greet sessions with her readers. And it wasn’t just finding out about the video which we would never have encountered otherwise. Lily then introduced us to a lot of her reformist friends in Australia who helped indirectly inform a number of ideas in my book and in my work in general.

Thanks Kelly. Thanks Lily.

Buy the book.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Alliance for Peacebuilding or its members.