The Sandbox Arena

The discipline of philosophy lies in being able to notice and articulate some of the most fundamental of the beliefs we hold, beliefs that serve to bind our lives together. Philosophers go on to evaluate whether these basic assumptions are good ones -- ones that are true -- or whether we should revise our beliefs. (https://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/sandbox/)

I wouldn't call myself a philosopher but my interest in philosophy has definitely grown over a lifetime of asking a lot of questions. Lately, I've been curious about the "beliefs that serve to bind our lives together" and asked myself if those beliefs were changing or need changing? If my known world, North America, is my sandbox and I make basic assumptions about which beliefs bind us together, these would be on my list: collaboration, freedom, safety and integrity.

Take collaboration. These past weeks, the residents of Calgary, Alberta experienced what it was like to conserve water after a section of the feeder water main broke. Interesting that many people didn't know how to conserve water because they'd never had to do that before. Calgary's Mayor stepped up letting her fellow city inhabitants know the details, the action plan and inspired them to collaborate and get creative to survive through a month long period of serious water shortage. Calgarians, including our daughter, rose to the challenge and contained their water usage to bare essentials. They collaborated and took care of their sandbox.

Next freedom. The rest of us carried on with our normal lives which, seems to me, tend to revolve around immediate gratification. While water is essential for us to live and motivated a city to collaborate, what about the other things we think are essential in our lives. Food and clothing, yes, but how did we get from going to a store once in awhile for goods to clicks at online sites to order the stuff we want and get it delivered in record time by parcel vans that crisscross our country 24/7? Constant consumerism can't be that great for the sandbox as the divide between becoming dissatisfied with what we have and the lists of what we want seems to be growing exponentially wider.

Burying our heads in the sandbox while we continue to consume probably isn't a safe-for-our-sandbox option. Do we need to change our beliefs about freedom to consume? We could unplug from those online screens, but some of us use them for our jobs and so it goes, on and on, round and round on our credit cards we now can't live without. For many people financial safety on a personal level is paramount to living well and many people aren't living well. Can we course correct in time and should we expect help from our government? Perhaps, but how much are we willing to look at or change our own consuming habit or definition of freedom to help all who live in the sandbox?

No-one wants to go back to just surviving. I did that for most of my life. Buying more in an effort to get to thriving, though, is like throwing more fuel on a fire to get warm. Eventually you have to buy more fuel or be cold until you run out of money and fuel and then surviving becomes a safety issue. Maybe it's the government's fault. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't but I know from experience that the difference between surviving and thriving starts with our 'how much is enough' beliefs, a kind of contentment scale. Can we be content with less? Of course we can, but we want what we want, when we want it. Consuming is not one of the sandbox principles I'd choose to play with, yet I get caught up in it just like everybody else.

Our sandbox may need some help. The reality is that it sucks when bad things happen to us by accident. Real life sucks through global pandemics, global warming, global greed, global circumstances, our own individual mistakes, or not so good choices. Our responsibility to live purposeful lives gets interrupted but that's called life on planet earth. Those bad things help us evaluate the beliefs that bind us together. I do know from experience that those interruptions, whatever the cause, can start the cycle of learning some of the best lessons of our lives.

Maybe that's what happening on a larger scale. Maybe we need to ask what we're learning right now as our current government fights to survive and the other political players in our North American sandbox fight to win the coveted leader prize on both sides of the border? We're learning a few things like what's really important for our country moving forward in a very complex and increasingly divided world. We're interconnected and the winds that blow in the sandbox sting everyone's eyes.

How do our leaders play in the sandbox? Some leaders play with power over that inevitably spills into greed, bullying, disrespect for others and strict adherence to their own narratives which underlings are encouraged to believe and repeat. This leader is a fool and feared unless the people subscribe to the leader's narrative. Some leaders play by power with that spills into service, motivating others and empowering narratives which underlings are encouraged to examine for themselves, fact-check and give feedback. This leader has integrity and is revered unless, for any reason, the people perceive the leader as weak. Any leader is unfit to lead if they surround themselves with people who are yes people, use the sandbox arena for their own gain, or play with toys that are cruel, unethical and lethal.

Are we headed toward Darwin's survival of the fittest, where the fittest are those who use and abuse power? How quick we are to jump to the opposite sides of the sandbox standing for our principles that affect all of us. As we jockey back and forth, all sides feel negation and polarization. Should we build a new sandbox so we're forced to collaborate to find solutions? Maybe we need to concentrate on renovating to keep our sandbox safe. Alas, we, the people can't even agree on how to fix it because it would affect our freedom to consume.

Bottom line? We have only one sandbox to live in at the moment and only one leader will be chosen to lead each of our respective countries until the pendulum swings again. That is, IF the sandbox arena itself survives with any of our principles intact like the freedom to "notice and articulate some of the most fundamental of the beliefs we hold, beliefs that serve to bind our lives together". Is it time to revise our beliefs?