An occupied mind
Let me get to the heart of the matter: I organize a day about Solutions Journalism and Complicating the Narrative in less than a week. It will be held at a beautiful location in The Netherlands but it’s not sold out yet. And I notice that I don’t feel like marketing it. Not because I don’t think it’s going to be good or that I doubt people will be interested, it’s just that my mind is too occupied with what is going on in the world. In the constant stream of war content, it feels wrong to ask people’s attention for something like this now.
The war in Gaza has been going on for almost three months and the amount of terrible footage reaching us through our mobile phones hasn’t decreased. It has made me ask myself so many questions:
- Every war is terrible, maybe this is extra intense because of all the footage?
- Am I too silent about the attacks by Hamas on October 7 and too vocal about the Palestinian cause?
- Can we as journalists use the word genocide or not yet?
- Do I know enough Jews to understand their perspective?
- Am I watching too much Democracy Now! and too little sources on the right spectrum of media?
- Etc. etc.
I guess we all recognize the thoughts in our heads, although you may grapple with different questions. A psychologist will say it’s good to have all the different voices inside of us and it’s completely normal to let them have a conversation. It doesn’t make you crazy, it makes you human. While this chat in our minds is going on, we learn how to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and other people’s their perspective. It is a relief to know I’m not crazy, but this mind chatter sometimes stops me from doing things. Like now in the case of marketing my Solutions Stories Day Retreat.
Time to invest
Some people express themselves with confidence around the urgent matters. They find it easy to pick a side or convince others of the facts proving they are right. Naomi Klein writes in her book Doppelganger about the extremes in our societies and how they get strengthened by media. When something big happens, like a war or a climate disaster or racial violence, we first enter a state of shock. And journalists are there to make sense of the shock, but that is not always possible. How to make sense of something you don’t understand yourself yet, right? Opportunist make use of the space to share their extreme views. With confidence. Even though things are often far more complex than they appear at first sight, we love to listen to people who simplify the world for us. We go easily from one extreme opinion to the other, colonizing our minds and don’t leave space for thoughts that are nuanced or filled with doubts.
Or for opinions other than ours. It is something journalists struggle with in their work. I often hear reporters express their worries about interviewing people who hold extremist views. They simply don’t know what questions to ask and how to get to their underlying fears. This is why we need to cherish the internal discussions in our minds and find out what other questions are there to ask. A good reason to join the retreat because Complicating the Narrative is one of the topics to discuss and it is exactly about that: asking different questions and learn how to listen better.
Take a step back
It’s just that the world we live in doesn’t accept doubt when you’re selling something, as a personal brand. Naomi Klein says in her book Doppelganger:
“Brands are not built to contain our multitudes; they demand fixedness, stasis, one singular self per person.”
The multitudes we hold in ourselves make us human. And a retreat is probably what we need the most. Retreat literally means to withdraw or take a step back. It is something I learned in yoga years ago, how to step back and look at a situation – your life, your work – from a distance. It gives fresh and new perspectives. And especially in a time when extreme events are happening, such as the war in Gaza and also Ukraine, or the effects of climate change, it is even more important that storytellers come together and join forces. To brainstorm new ideas and learn from each other’s insights.
To go on a one-day retreat and learn about Solutions Journalism and how to create constructive stories more often in 2024 is an investment in yourself. And if we want to change the world, we need to start with the person we know best.
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