We seek to protect because we love, enjoy, or cherish something. This leads to the challenge of talking about risks and harms in any area of life. You can easily get labelled as a fear monger. You can become the ‘no’ person, the ‘negative’ one. And people begin to roll their eyes and tune out when you begin to speak. The fear overtakes the love.

In responding to a friend’s concern her book Silent Spring’s focus on pesticides would eclipse the splendor of the planet, Rachel Carson wrote:

I myself never thought the ugly facts would dominate, and I hope they don’t. The beauty of the living world I was trying to save has always been uppermost in my mind — that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done. I have felt bound by a solemn obligation to do what I could — if I didn’t at least try I could never again be happy in nature. But now I can believe I have at least helped a little. It would be unrealistic to believe that one book could bring a complete change.

H/T the Marginalian

The challenge is to highlight enough of the beauty you are trying to perserve or protect. This is true of digital transformation, of relationships, of gardens, animals, and all of life. Perhaps it is also about articulate what we are for more than what we are against. Or at least regularly reminding others what we are for.

So what are you ‘for’ today?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez