Planting Flowers and Saving Starfish – 2025 Version

 

This cartoon brings up many profound truths: It’s up to us; start small; little things matter; don’t give up; expectations are everything; be the change we want to see in the world; it’s always worth nurturing or creating something. The lessons go on and on.

 

Of course, it’s not always that simple to plant flowers (literally or metaphorically). It’s easy to get paralyzed by thinking that whatever we do won’t be enough. I know I get caught up in that. I’m only one person; what can I do? Does it really matter?

 

This reminds me of the story about a storm that strands thousands of starfish on the beach. A child walks along, picking up starfish and throwing them back into the sea, knowing they won’t otherwise survive. An adult passing by observes, “There’s so many, you’ll hardly make a difference.” The child pauses and replies, “But I’ll make a difference to this one.”

 

In some versions of the story, the adult tosses starfish back into the sea after hearing the child’s response. Other adults join in, eventually saving them all. This illustrates how any of us can lead by example—we don’t need an important position or millions of social media followers—we just need to do the right thing.

 

But what is the right thing? In our current moment, for me, it is taking actions to resist what I believe is an assault against our democracy, our constitution, and our systems of law and justice. I didn’t intend to bring in politics in this post, but I realized I was missing the point if I didn’t. I hope that you’ll keep on reading, regardless of whether we agree, as it’s a chance for us to understand each other better.

 

Why do I feel that we are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis? Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, describes the situation this way: “Think of the federal government as a car. You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them.”

 

I’m worried that if Elon Musk continues to have unfettered access to systems and data, and continues the mass firings of federal workers and closing of federal agencies, we will no longer have a car (a workable government). Are there issues with the government? Absolutely. But I believe that a workable government with issues is better than no government at all. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves.” Highways, bridges, keeping water and air from being poisoned, funding cancer research, providing care for us and our family members when we are sick or no longer able to work—these are good roles for government.

 

I am a lifelong Democrat. And I have good friends and family members who voted for Trump. They’re still my good friends and family members. I know them to be kind, loving, intelligent people who trust different information sources than I do. They likely don’t see the actions so far taken by the Trump administration as problematic, and may, in fact, support them.

 

But I certainly didn’t vote—and ultimately I don’t think they did either—for the dismantling of our system of checks and balances, the violation of the separation of powers, or the disregard for the rule of law coming from the White House. I recognize that my friends who support Trump would probably say I am being dramatic; that none of this is happening or is going to happen. I hope they’re right. But I feel a responsibility to speak out and do what I can to express my concerns, just as I would expect them to do if our situations were reversed.

 

If you feel similarly, please join me in the small actions I’m taking: Through Indivisible, I find inspiration and targeted action steps. Using 5 Calls, I make calls to my representatives, choosing one issue per day that is important to me. While my representatives share my political philosophies, I know they need to hear that a) I appreciate what they are doing, and b) I want them to be united in their opposition to stop what they can and slow down what they can’t. I’ll be writing letters through Vote Forward to encourage people to vote in the upcoming Wisconsin State Supreme Court election. And I doubled my monthly donation to the ACLU, whose mission is to protect all of our rights, regardless of our beliefs. ADD Vote Forward.

 

I may not be able to do much as one individual, and it’s so easy to feel like it’s hopeless. That may be true, but what I know for sure is that if I do nothing, I won’t have any impact. Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen over the coming years, I want to know that I acted with integrity.

 

Back to the cartoon—which I’ve shared before—it continues to remind me how important it is to do what we can to make the world a better place, whether that is planting flowers, saving starfish, or calling our representatives. The flowers we plant may not ever bloom. We may have limited individual influence on the outcome. But that shouldn’t stop us from appreciating and improving our little corner of the world while living in congruence with our values, and respecting all of our fellow Americans, no matter how we voted.

 

 

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On a different topic, you may have noticed this is the first Coaching Heights Summit Register you’ve received from me in quite a while. I consciously decided to stop writing my Coaching Heights blog two years ago to reclaim more of my concentration. I am one of those people who tries to do it all, which sometimes works, but mostly I end up scattering my focus in all different directions.

 

I had intended to write a post explaining my decision, but obviously, that didn’t happen! So, this will have to do.

 

I may return to writing this blog again in the future, but for now, I’m focusing my creative energies on my Exum History book project. Wish me luck! And I hope that we can look back on this turning point in our country’s history and know that we were not bystanders – that collectively, we took the actions that were within our control to take, regardless of the outcome.

 

We must believe that our future will be better, and that we can help make it happen, or at least increase the odds. Here’s to planting flowers wherever we are, so that we shape the world around us into what we most want it to be. Looking forward to seeing what we can plant together!