The tears in our cultural fabric are deep. We are torn and divided. We have little common ground. Do we give up? Eat more cheese? Stay on the couch? Invest in Chevron?

The challenges in front of us are real and consequential. The U.S. election season highlighted the current schism in our world and exposed the inequalities in front of us all:

• There are no easy solutions for the CoVID-19 pandemic. People are sick and people are dying. My 26-year-old son spent a night in the ER and my sister-in-law’s father died last week. The virus is scary and real.
• The struggle for racial justice has been deeply exposed through our current divisions.
• The climate crisis does not give us much time to get our act together.

These bullets are overwhelming. The key is to work to find possible solutions and create a plan of action, and then act. We can solve problems by attacking them head on, incrementally.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught that there is your way, my way, and the way of truth. We need to separate people from the problem and focus on the common ground that is the truth:

• I know it is obvious, but science and data must lead the solutions for the pandemic. My wife is a nurse and she is encountering CoVID-19 patients. Because she and the nurse-doctor team take it seriously, wear their PPE, wash their hands, and keep physically as distant as possible (not that easy when giving shots, etc.), nobody on her team has contracted the virus. Business and school can be conducted if it is done very carefully. Follow the data to open safely.
• We all need to recognize the racist past of our world and be honest about how it has created systems of inequality. We share this past. Actively creating new systems, and businesses, that change the access and opportunities for disadvantaged communities provides multiple pathways to change. Diversity does make us stronger. Fixing would help (here is one proposal driven by data). Support companies like FreeCap.
• The climate crisis is real. While the clock is ticking, there are solutions that are creating change and opportunity. It ends up being a good business decision to care about the long-term future of our world (I know I say that often). Watch David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet. Support companies like Uncharted Power.

It is a difficult time to write a blog – to recognize the real challenges, while simultaneously seeking common ground – and authentically demonstrating optimism for a brighter future.

But we do share so much as one human race. We can be together. We do have the agency to affect positive change. Our common bond is a better collective future. Drink more water. Move with purpose. Invest in impact. Invest in Change Finance.

Allow tears of joy to flow and to start healing the deep tears. Seek solutions to the problems and find common ground to move forward. I am.