Was my trip to Colombia still part of this year? In some ways this year has gone fast but in other ways, May feels forever ago, when I was visiting some university students in a post-conflict community learning about peace building from them.
Problem solving is a good thing. The same part of my brain that digs improv and escape rooms and the mental components of baseball also gets charged by thinking about global issues through that lens.
But I’ve also learned that problem solving isn’t everything. Proximity is even more fundamental. Things begin and end with showing up and moving closer to the people who are affected by the problem. Problem solving without proximity often creates further problems. Proximity is the birthplace of lasting solutions. And proximity for its own sake is a beautiful, underrated thing.
Proximity Over Problem Solving
