Failure Is Not An Option

At this point I suspect that everyone reading this post is feeling the effects of the corona virus.  For some of you your income may have fallen off a cliff.  Others are working from home.  If you have children, their schools are no doubt closed.  We’ve all been to the grocery stores and seen the empty shelves.  Hopefully you haven’t yet known anyone who has the virus, or worse yet lost anyone to it. 

Every day there are more more travel bans, more closures, more news of the virus spreading.
 

You can’t turn the news on without thinking you have somehow found yourself inside an apocalypse movie.  The corona virus is testing us with a dress rehearsal for the worst case scenarios people are predicting as the effects of climate change intensify.  We are seeing what we thought was a secure, stable, normal way of life unravel in our globally connected world.  How we respond to this crisis will set the stage for how we behave when the next disaster crashes on our shores.  

I’m going to sound now like someone who spends way too much time in the company of behavior analysts.  This is what they have been teaching me.  Under stress we revert back to previously learned behaviors. Here’s a real world example to explain what this means.

Dr Jesus Rosales-Ruiz tells this story about getting a flat time.  His young son was in the car with him.  Jesús caught himself getting angry.  That’s the response that had been modeled for him when he was young.  Get mad at the car.  Blame somebody else.  Fuss and fume and make a big show of your displeasure.  

But his son was with him.  This was the first time anything like this had happened to him.  Jesús knew that whatever experience his son had, whatever he saw his father doing, would become part of the behavioral repertoire he would draw on later in life.  

So Jesús stopped himself from fuming about the inconvenience of a flat tire.  Instead he taught his son how to fix a flat tire.  His son learned a useful skill, and so much more.  He learned to be resourceful.  He learned to stay calm in the face of a crisis, and to find a solution.

That’s what we all need to do.  We need to be resourceful.  We need to carry on, even if carrying on means staying put in our houses.  

We need to be part of the solution.  That means more than just staying six feet away from everyone you meet.  It means reaching out through the internet and the telephone to check on friends and neighbors.  It means sharing scarce resources.  It means enjoying the extra time you get to spend with your children.  

We’re all washing our hands more than ever.  Instead of saying the alphabet, or some other mindless ditty, one suggestion I heard recently was to spend the time in gratitude, thanking all the first responders, the hospital workers, the grocery store clerks, and everyone else in the front lines working to get ahead of this virus and to get our lives back to normal as quickly as possible.

It means creating a sense of connection even when we can’t meet up directly.  We are, after all, a social species.  Isolation can have some terrible and unintended consequences.  That’s what today’s “Horses for Future” podcast is about - isolation and its fallout.

I said earlier that I have been spending time with behavior analysts.  Back in February I presented at the Art and Science of Animal Training conference.  That seems like an ocean of time ago given all that has been happening over the last couple of weeks.  We could actually hold a conference and the corona virus was still just a side topic.

Dr Joe Layng gave two talks, one during the conference itself, and a second talk on Monday for the presenters and Jesús’ graduate students.  Dr. Layng’s topic was degrees of freedom and the fallout that occurs when restricted choices create isolation and coercion.  They were fascinating talks, at the same time both profoundly disturbing and very hopeful.  I not only wanted to hear them again, I wanted to share what Joe was saying with the “Horses for Future” audience.  Joe very kindly agreed to record a podcast in which he went over his two presentations.

“Horses for Future” is concerned about climate change so at the end we brought all the many threads together, and you will see why I so wanted to share this information.  Understanding the rich nuggets of his arguments will help us create the kind of connections we need now and for the future.  We must find ways not to isolate ourselves one group from another with all the fallout and negative consequences that generates.  Joe shows us how to create a path forward - together.

What this current crisis is teaching us so clearly is failure is not an option.  The stakes are too high.  So do please listen to the podcast, and then share it with others.  I’ve divided the conversation into two episodes because Joe gives us a lot to think about.  You’ll see at the end of Part 2 why this is such an important podcast to listen to and to share.

You can listen to the podcast at SequesterCarbon.com or subscribe to the “Horses for Future” podcast through your normal podcast provider.  While you are there, please leave a five star review.  It helps google find the podcast so we can spread the word.  

It’s not only horse people who can make a difference in the climate change crisis.  We all can, and what’s more, this virus is showing us that we all really need to.  We are indeed all part of a globally connected community.

I hope you stay well.

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