Imagine It's 2034

I got this great question in one of my Q&A’s last week before the election, and I wanted to  elaborate on it more in light of the results. I invite all of you to consider your own answers. 

1. I hope mental health services are widely available and, most importantly, affordable. So many ills of the world could be solved if people had better access to and understanding of their emotional world and the tools to navigate uncertainty and difficulty. Emotional wellness is also important for developing compassion and empathy, which are so lacking in our society right now. Over the last decade, the conversation around mental health has evolved. We have a lot more language to talk about what’s going on, but there’s still more work to be done. Too often, emotional wounds or trauma from childhood or adolescence shape our worldview without us even realizing it, leading to chronic stress, chronic pain, difficulties in relationships, substance abuse, or other destructive patterns. If we don’t make it our responsibility to really know ourselves, our emotional wounds become the main character.

2. It baffles me that we have not moved to a place of greater acceptance for all people in the year of our lord 2024. I think this is critical for a better future. Acceptance begins within, but it also translates to how we feel about and treat other people. Don’t like abortions? Don’t get one. Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t get married to someone of the same sex. The intolerance for those who are different from us and the desire to control or push away what is different is bordering on obsession. Why are we fixated on drag queens reading to kids, or what bathrooms trans people are using, or kids learning about racism in school when we have such a glaring issue with white boys and men carrying out mass murders in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, etc?

3. Over the weekend, I watched a video where a white journalist, Ryan Grim, was speaking with Marc Lamont Hill about Joe Rogan’s influence in the election. They discussed how Rogan, who was once considered liberal, had shifted to endorsing Trump. Grim said, “People will call him [Rogan] a white supremacist or something, but I bet half of his audience isn’t white.” It made me want to scream, because it’s clear that so many people still don’t understand that you don’t have to be white to uphold white supremacy, a foundational principle of this country. Whenever our systems or social norms prioritize and protect whiteness as the standard—that’s white supremacy. Non-white people often seek proximity to whiteness to access resources, gain social mobility, or in hopes of achieving success. Our presidential election was a flawless display of how white supremacy works: one candidate—a six-time bankrupt businessman who was endorsed by hate groups, convicted of 34 felonies, led an insurrection, and a well-known grifter—was widely viewed as “competent” and “patriotic,” while a Black woman who’s worked in practically every branch of the government (regardless of whether you feel she was “right” for the job) faced constant doubt, criticism for her demeanor, and accusations of sleeping her way to the top. I've seen a lot of arguments say, “Well, we had a Black president for eight years,”—yes, we did, and he was relentlessly targeted by racism inside and outside of our government— but people have selective memories. Obama's presidency fueled a fear so deep in white America and it drove them straight into Trump's arms for protection.

As always, I am connecting to something far greater than me to stay in a space of neutrality with a little sprinkle of hope. I have never been more certain that this is a turning point for America. As the country approaches the end of its Pluto return (November 17)—a planetary cycle symbolizing death, rebirth, and transformation—the upheaval it brings is inevitable. We are witnessing the dismantling of outdated structures, and I don’t believe we’ve hit rock bottom yet. There is still a deep attachment to the past, a refusal to confront some of the nation’s ugliest and most exploitative aspects. As they say, you cannot heal what you don’t feel. But I believe in the emergence of something better in its place.

Regardless of who is president, we get to decide what that future looks like. We still have control over who we are, what we value, how we show up for ourselves, and how we support our community or the most vulnerable amongst us. That choice is always ours. I genuinely believe that building a better future starts with fostering a deeper connection to ourselves. Owning our personal power and sense of responsibility may not reach as far as the executive branches of government, but we all belong to networks and communities, and we shouldn’t underestimate the change we can create in the spaces where we have influence. 

When you figure out the 2-3 things you hope will be normalized in society by 2034, ask yourself: what steps can you take to start moving the needle forward?