Key takeaways
A wider perspective can help us choose how to respond without dismissing what matters.
This week’s episode introduces ideas I’m also exploring in a book about business.
There’s something absurd about being capable of contemplating the universe and still getting worked up over a Wednesday-night recreational soccer game.
I know because I’ve managed both.
This week’s R: On Everything begins with a moment on the sideline that I wish I’d handled differently. From there, we venture into cosmic consciousness and a practical question: can remembering the larger world we belong to help us treat the person in front of us a little better?
The size of a galaxy doesn’t make someone’s grief insignificant. Looking up won’t settle a disagreement or relieve us of the responsibility to address it. But a little distance might help us see more of the situation—and more of the person we’re about to answer.
That possibility has been occupying a growing share of my writing.
It’s also part of the groundwork for a book I’ve been working on, The Cosmically Conscious Corporation, which takes these questions into a corporate setting. What changes when a business takes seriously its place in a world larger than itself? How might that understanding affect the people it employs and the decisions it makes?
There’ll be more to share about that project. For now, this episode offers a way into the thinking behind it, beginning with the very manageable task of responding more kindly when I’m embarrassed and out of breath.
Tell me in the comments
Has a change in perspective ever helped you handle a difficult moment differently?