Adapting to uncertainty: the challenges of living in interesting times
In her introduction to the Selected Stories of HG Wells, Ursula K Le Guin observed that every generation finds that they are “strangers in a changed, incomprehensible world”. She wrote that since the industrial revolution, we have been “drawn into a multiverse of constantly increasing variety and change”.
Le Guin wrote that in 2004. In the same year, Mark Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook. Since then, the number of multiverses we live in has expanded. For those of us who live online, we each have our own universe with different videos, news articles, opinions, and memes served to us across our personal choice of media.
Politicians are able to tell us reality is not the same as our everyday experiences. What constitutes truth is up for discussion. In my 43 years on earth, being human has changed immeasurably.
When I was a kid, our house had 3 TV channels and you watched what was on. If you missed an episode of your favourite show, tough luck. We all watched the news. Sport was a fixture you knew would be on, whether you liked it or not. We had shared cultural experiences from comedy sketches to news events. The telephone sat on a table in the hall. Shops were shut on Sundays. There was a lot of leisure time you had to come up with ways of filling.
Nowadays, I rarely watch what’s actually on TV. I can be blissfully unaware of the news and sport if I choose to be. My telephone goes in my pocket but I rarely call anyone on it, and am suspicious if it rings. I can buy anything I want any time of day or night and get it delivered to my house within 24 hours. Robots trundle around the streets delivering pizzas. I never have time to be bored because I can always read something on my phone, or watch a video, or play a computer game. Switching off is both challenging and daunting.
This isn’t an article about the ‘good old days’. I enjoy a bit of nostalgia but I wouldn’t say the 1980s were ‘better’, or that the 2020s are. They are totally different worlds.
After my mum died, alone, in a care home in 2020, a friend asked me if I had processed what happened yet. I don’t think any of us have processed what happened to us during 2020 or in the years since. That “increasing variety and change” has accelerated. We’re not trying to process one change, or one traumatic event, but a series of them: some personal, and some collective.
It’s all too much for our reptilian brain. Already stressed by being constantly bombarded with information, expected to make complex decisions, eager for the dopamine hit of notifications and the refresh button, which mean it never gets to switch off, it can’t possibly process all that has happened in the past 3 years. I’m writing this in the UK. Wherever you are in the world, you will have experienced national changes, as well as local and personal ones.
In just 3 years.
335 million years ago, the Earth had one continent called Pangea. It began to break apart at the start of the Jurassic. We think of the ground as fixed. A firm base underfoot. But actually, it’s constantly moving. Not only does it spin on its axis, while rotating around a giant ball of burning gas, but it moves beneath us.
Post-pandemic, I feel we are all like tectonic plates. We’ve undergone stress, and we’ve moved. You might have pivoted your businesses, or switched jobs, moved home, reassessed what you want from life, or had a mindset shift. None of us are where we were at the start of 2020.
We are changed.
This Substack is all about that change. Where we were, where we are, where we go now, and trying to make sense of it.
The first Terry Pratchett book I read was Interesting Times. I didn’t understand the proverb then. I do now. We are living in interesting times and we have to make the best of them.
When I was trying to figure out what to call this Substack, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions. It came up with The Rachel Review, Rachel’s Mindful Musings, In Rachel’s Orbit, and Rachel’s Whimsical Words.
There will be mindful musings, some whimsy, and you are in my orbit. I trust you like it here. I’ll be chatting about my take on what’s happening in my world, there’ll be some random observations, and resources I liked and hope you will too.
You just read the first article I wrote for re: writes, before I decided to put together
It made sense to publish that first so this article has become a second introduction to what to expect from me here.
A couple of things I read this week
Ultra-processed foods: the 19 things everyone needs to know – I came across Dr Chris van Tulleken through my children watching the excellent Operation Ouch. I have downloaded his book about ultra-processed food (UPF) on Audible but not had a chance to listen yet so this run down was helpful.
Book Publicity: What Works and What Doesn’t – I don’t have a book (never say never) but sometimes people are writing books and ask me about publicising them so this caught my eye.
I am enjoying the Substack rabbit hole. I’ve bookmarked lots of things and I’ll be sharing more in future weeks. Shout out to Nika Talbot who got in touch when I told launched and offered to show me around. Nika writes The Shift and this is her latest post:
What has caught your eye this week?
