Future Serious Resources for August 17, 02025

Feel Good ⊗ New Words ⊗ Acceptance

Hey,

Obviously, still struggling to find some consistency this summer. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been hard to stay afloat mentally with everything that’s going on here in the States. To anyone still hanging in there with me, thanks for your patience.

PLEASE READ! In case you missed it, registration is now open for the third cohort of the Confronting Education Workshop, which will start on September 16! If you’re looking for a community to help process the unraveling that’s happening right now and what it means for the future of schooling and education, I hope you’ll consider joining us.

Here’s one take from a participant in Cohort 2 which just concluded:

“Confronting our global predicament. Asking if the way we ‘do school’ contributes to the world’s many existential struggles. Being in community with each other to deeply appreciate the power of community and relationships–to cope, to find hope, to move forward. Will’s Confronting Education workshop inspired me to deepen my efforts in support of a world rooted in mutual thriving.“

~Alison Sniekcus, Staff Teacher, Raritan Learning Cooperative, Lambertville, NJ

REMEMBER:

• Tiered pricing to fit every budget.

• Over 100 alumni to share the journey with.

• A brave and safe space to work through ideas and emotions.

• Early bird pricing through August 22.

Get all the details and register here. Let me know if you have any questions.

Finally…

As always, thanks for reading. As a reminder, all posts here are free, but if you want to show your support for my work in general, a paid subscription is always an option. (Thanks to A.H. for contributing this week!) Remember: I’m donating all proceeds from paid subscriptions to my local food pantry at the end of the year (now at $1,138.50!)

With any luck, I’ll see you later this week with Provocation #25.

With gratitude,

~Will

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Go Ahead…Feel Good

Douglas Rushkoff, (who I once shared an Uber and a stage with) has this interesting essay up that is hitting home for me. As I alluded to above, it’s been really hard to stay up and to feel joyful these days. But that’s a really important tool and strength for making it through the morass.

Love this part especially:

In the midst of so much unspeakable trauma (actually, quite speakable trauma) is it okay to experience moments of joy and connection, or even mere appreciation for being alive and breathing?

I think so. I think if we’re lucky enough, even privileged enough — and I know that’s a loaded word — to have waded into a warm spot in an otherwise cold ocean of despair, we have to at least let ourselves experience the opening and appreciation that comes with it. For being, as long as it lasts, simply okay.

Providing — and here’s the ethical caveat, I guess — providing it’s the joy of connection to the whole shebang, not the relief of having temporarily disconnected from the way things are, or having strategized some “win.” Sure, achievements are great and all that, and if you’re studied and done well on a test, or succeeded in business, or did some hard work and now get to taste the fruit of that effort, sure. Go for it.

But I’m talking more about the sort of bounty that just shows up. The way the snow just falls and quiets the city. A moment of beauty that simply unfolds for you. The way the essential rightness of nature or pattern of moments line up. An embrace from your lover. A moment of recognition with a friend. A sunset with your dog….less something you have achieved than a gift from the gods. Totally unearned. Undeserved. Bounty.

The struggle for me is that I’m in a space where sometimes I don’t think humans actually deserve to feel any pleasure given the violence and separation we seem to pursue on the planet and each other. Feeling joy or sensing beauty seems indulgent.

I know, however, that’s no way to live the life I have left. So, yeah…I’m still keeping my eyes out for those gifts.

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We Need New Words

As a former English teacher and a lover of words, I enjoyed Nate Hagen’s take on all the things that are happening right now that we don’t have actual words for. No doubt that’s a symptom of a moment fraught with large-scale change, but it’s also an opportunity to be creative and playful with language. (And I acknowledge that this is an Anglo-centric discussion; we need new words in all languages.)

There’s a lot here, but I was drawn to this particular part of the discussion:

“The word “woke” has become a cultural Rorschach test. Originally, it meant awareness – of systemic injustice, of our shared history, of how inequality plays out in the present. But today, it's a political football – and has become more heat than light.

But what if we reclaimed the root of that word and applied it to something deeper – our ecological systems? What if we had a term for people who are ecologically awake?

Not in the narrow sense of recycling plastic or planting a tree on Earth Day. But awake to the reality that we live inside – not outside – of ecosystems. That our lives are shaped by rivers, soils, forests, insects, microbes, oceans, and atmosphere... and in turn, our actions shape all those things too.

There’s no cultural shorthand right now for someone who sees and understands this. Who sees that the air in Delhi, the drought in California, and the deforestation in the Amazon are not separate issues – but symptoms of the same underlying metabolic story.

This missing word might help capture a new kind of status – not for being rich or famous or clever, but for being attuned. To be someone who understands the links between energy and ecology, between species and soil, between our dopamine loops and our degrading biosphere. Someone who sees our impacts not in terms of parts per million, but in terms of interconnections and relationships.

I love that idea of being “attuned.” I’m working on that.

Anyway, in the comments, I offered up the word “biognizant” which didn’t get much love but still kinda works for me.

Wondering what new words you might suggest to capture this whirlwind…

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From Awareness to Acceptance

Without going into the details, I’ve been struggling of late with some work I’m doing with education leaders who are prepping to tackle a new, interesting initiative in their state that is actually a good opportunity to reframe this thing we call education. I’ve been trying to help them “confront education” so they can make the most of it, but a) they didn’t really sign up to be confronted, and b) I’m not sure there’s a lot of capacity to change in general.

To be clear, while there is some awareness in this group of what’s happening in the world, the challenge comes in trying to accept the implications for education and the experience of school they are creating for their kids. In other words, as Jessica Wildfire writes, awareness doesn’t mean acceptance:

It’s ironic that a society so fixated on mental health wants to pass judgment on anyone who’s reached the acceptance phase of their collapse grief, treating it like a sickness, or accusing them of giving up. Western society in general and Americans in particular have developed a toxic aversion to grief.

So they remain stuck in denial.

On the contrary, acceptance is exactly what enables someone to live the rest of their life with a sense of meaning and purpose.

A lot of us have achieved collapse awareness. We know it’s happening, but we’ve all been working our way through these stages.

We’ve been grieving.

You could describe someone in the acceptance phase of collapse as collapse-adjusted. Psychologists say that when we accept death and loss, we don’t just get over it. We learn how to integrate it into our lives. We still miss who and what we lost. We still feel sadness, anger, fear, despair, regret, and everything else. Those emotions simply don’t control us anymore. We learn how to manage them.

We feel grounded again.

Again, this echoes the pre-tragic => tragic => post-tragic framing that I’ve written about here before.

Bottom line, the “opportunity” for doing good work in education and the world lies in acceptance right now. Any other lens feels inadequate.

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Quoteables

“Writing down one thing each day you are grateful for is the cheapest form of therapy ever.” ~Kevin Kelly

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” ~Aristotle

“Education is a natural process, carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” ~Dr. Maria Montessori

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Thoughts / Reflections / Questions / Shorts

• We’re in a “plastics crisis” and there’s not an easy way out.

• For the deep divers, the American Meteorological Society has a 527-page report on the “State of the Climate in 2024.”

• The Great Barrier Reef is hurting badly.

• I think part of my issue right now is that I’m feeling “denial fatigue” from trying to convince others of the moment we’re facing. Is that a thing?

• Btw…learners will inherit the Earth. Duh.

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As always, let me know what you’d like to see more (or less) of in these newsletters. I’m always open to learning and evolving in ways that help you make better sense of this interesting moment.

With gratitude,

~Will