Now More Than Ever
A few years back I went to a Pechakucha night in Vancouver on becoming the greenest city in 2020 (remember that?).
I snatched a poster because the message was so compelling: Now More Than Ever. It has been the focal point of my office ever since.
Today, the online world seems to either be for or against this message - either ‘collectively grieving’ and needing everyone to Back. Off. with the projects (I see you, parents of small children), or telling anyone who will listen that we ‘never lacked the time’. I’m not interested in that debate - we all need to roll with the punches and that looks different for everyone.
The bigger message that drives me is this:
It has always been Now More Than Ever.
The ‘world as we knew it’ was not healthy for anyone, and supremely damaging to most.
I first learned this when I lived in La Paz at 18, where the literal divide between poor and rich made me question my existence as a white, Swiss, upper middle class girl. I learned it again while working in retail, prepping the summer season before Christmas. And then again, when I worked on organic farms, seeing how easy it would be to implement a natural cycle if we weren’t used to immediacy and a huge selection.
I learned that the way we (are made to) consume hurts everyone and everything. So my mission became to ‘break consumerism’, and I kept hoping for someone else to do it first so we could start getting to work.
Enter Covid-19.
It’s not the ‘great equalizer’ and it hasn’t broken big business yet, but it has opened a door. We have no choice but to adjust; just HOW we do that will make all the difference.
Now More Than Ever do we get to reprioritize and redefine how we want the next few decades to go.
When my mom sent me a photo of a woodpecker in her backyard (this is rare, but not some Covid special), I couldn’t help but look up its symbolism. And there it was: Pay attention. Big changes are happening. Seize the moment.
So I drew a Buntspecht (in German, because he’s Swiss) to match the lettering taken straight from the Pechakucha poster.
May it compel you :)
