GRAND View: Where do we go from here?
I admit it, these past few months have shaken me to my core. How about you? I always say I like change. I recall reading as a youngster that the only constant is change and I have always tried to embrace it…to focus on the good and do my best to fix the bad.
The problem now is that the change comes at us like a stream of bullets. It’s hard to dodge and it might just kill you, or kill what is near and dear. It’s COVID-19 but it’s also Mother Earth loving her balance. It’s democracy circling the drain and simple human decency getting trampled for power and profit.
Our nation feels like a reckless teenager hell-bent on running all the red lights while texting. Hopefully, the November election will put adults behind the wheel and we can begin to repair the damage, but I’m fearful that a poisonous cocktail of hate, greed, and ignorance has been released that may not go easily back into the bottle it came from.
In this issue, we lead off with a heartfelt piece from our friends at Generations United. It is by a grandmother who describes growing up Black in America today. I hope you will read, watch and listen to Pete Seger as he introduces the memorable civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome, to others for the first time. It is as powerful and inspiring today as it was in the mid-1960s.
We’re proud to feature Dr. Jill Biden as our cover grand and to help shine a light on her amazing life as an educator and so much more.
Our editors have, again, assembled a delightful array of inspiration and motivation; we learn about traveling out west, poignant poetry, grandparent wisdom, loss of loved ones, beauty tips and technology, the joys (yes, joys) of aging, sheltering in place, and making a precious pineapple cake.
So, please take some time with the magazine, treat yourself well, and join in the conversation.
With my best to you and your family,
Christine (aka Grandmere) with Poppy and Juniper
P.S. We’d love to know what you think of this issue and more. Just click here
The psychology of your future self
“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.” Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the “end of history illusion,” where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we’ll be for the rest of time. Hint: that’s not the case.
Why you should listen
Harvard psychologist, Dan Gilbert believes that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes, Gilbert argues that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy. And these quirks in our cognition make humans very poor predictors of our own bliss.
Dan Gilbert, psychologist, happiness expert and author of Stumbling on Happiness