Search Institute

I remember often talking with my students about those times of life when you’re able to say, “Whoa. I’m having a time of my life at this moment.” Face it: most days are relatively routine and mundane. More broadly, whole stretches of time can be rather unremarkable.

But these are not those times.

Something collective is happening. I see it in people’s tweets. I can see it on the faces of coworkers. I hear it in conversations. And I feel it myself. The phrase “in these rough economic times” has become some sort of ubiquitous mantra that permeates just about everything that we experience and sense in our lives. Not to be macabre, but it feels as though the world is playing itself out on a darkly hued backdrop that somehow affects nearly every facet of our lives – personally and collectively.

Of greatest concern to me is that even joy seems to be playing out on a landscape marked by general tension.

On my podium for years hung a cheesy, tattered poster. Some sort of shot of daisies in a big field. There was a Carl Sandburg quote on it though that has stuck with me and I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It went something like this: “All times are good times if we but know what to do with them.”

So that’s the real question isn’t it? What do we do with times like these? These ARE tough times. We are trying to make do with what we’ve got some of the time. The issues we face as individuals, organizations, a nation, and the world are heavy ones. But guess what? These are the times we’ve been given. They’ll change of course. All things are temporary. But are we willing to wait for something to change before we accept these as good times?

I read a tweet a few minutes ago from a friend who works in some offices in the same building as Search. She wrote:
Know what today is? Today is “Let’s Have a Good Day, Dammit!” Day! I want smiles on those faces, people. SMILES. #optimismbyforce

Optimism my force. I love it. Sometimes it’s that force of will, the collective spirit of community and friends, that allows us to kick times like these in the teeth and decide that these are good times.

As for me, I’m going to run across the street and pick up some suckers and candy and bring them over to my friend’s office to help promulgate her forced optimism. Sometimes some Skittles might be the only the thing we need to tip a day toward optimism.

In Maya Angelou’s inaugural poem, On the Pulse of Morning, she writes: “The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.” I love that image of the horizon leaning forward, compelling us to move ahead.

She ends the poem this way:
“Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.”

Good morning. These are good times.