day 19, add-on, STRESS FACTORS, TOURISM, WHAT ACTION TO TAKE?

STRESS FACTORS

LONGEVITY CAMPAIGN, yesterday. A report. The longevity campaign hit the mark again with a precision and cunning that got my whole family into a lively debate at the breakfast table (usually our breakfasts are a quiet affair with the odd grunt in acknowledgement of the others’ presence, or the: yes, please, jam.) Not so yesterday when our daughter said excitedly, and more awake than I have seen her in a year or two: ‘Listen to that! “Join us in compiling a list of things that stress us in our everyday lives. And let’s see whether we can’t come up with ideas of how to reduce stress. Here an example of a stress factor that came up in our team meeting: tourist rip-offs. You are on a holiday, you are supposed to relax and around every corner you are faced with ridiculously high prices that have no other justification than to make as much money as possible from you. Ice cream, espresso, a glass of wine? The simple delights of a holiday spoiled by prices that stress, suck and are downright out of place. Who can relax when they have to spend vast amounts of money on small pleasures?”’ Could we relate? Hell, yes! And as our son pointed out: ‘It’s worse. I remember that we began to fight at that ice-cream parlour because some of us wanted to have a fun holiday and some of us thought it was ridiculous to pay those prices.’ Our youngest child nodded, saying: ‘Do you remember, how we said one night that we’d take a camper so we could stay by the lake without stepping into the tourist traps?’ My son nodded. ‘Only camping has become a tourist trap, too. Are there other stress examples?’ my son asked. ‘Yes,’ my daughter said and chuckled. ‘Tech. It says here: “Tech has become so advanced and so potent that it frequently breaks down and doesn’t do what we need it to do — often because it knows better than us what we should want.’ The discussion which followed kept us at the breakfast table for over an hour in a heated discussion about what stressed us about tech and, to be fair, we also had some ideas of what stress-free tech could look like. ‘It boils down to self-determination and minimalism without algorithms creeping up on us with what someone wants to sell,’ our youngest summarised perfectly. When we took a look at the Hub’s Campaign Square again, the list of daily stress factors, compiled by Hub users, was long and growing. I was surprised, I admit, how clearly we can identify pretty much every stress factor we are confronted with — much of it unnecessary. There is no good reason for the lack of sufficient public toilets or fresh water fountains (No, making billions from drinking water is not OK. It’s robbery.) There is no good reason why foods shouldn’t be easily affordable. (No, the food industry doesn’t need to make billions. And no there is no need to speculate with foods on the global markets.) There is no good reason why we can’t make an effort to cultivate a less aggressive driving style, why we can’t smile at each other in the streets, why a city would be clogged with traffic, why we wouldn’t learn to respect each other’s bubbles and so on. Just as we were scrolling down the list, the campaign team published a new post. It started with a warning that made us smile, at this point. Two weeks ago, we would probably have thought it a silly remark. ‘Fair warning:’ the post began, ‘the following will contain positive references to our town project and to our businesses, portraying them as stress-reducing options. You have been warned. If you want to take this ride nonetheless, hop on for our noon question: How do we propose to deal with everyday stress in our town?’ And then the team picked one stress factor at a time and convincingly illustrated that alternatives are available. We only have to choose the alternatives. Here a few points which stuck out for me: Apparently the town project wants to use income from tourism to co-finance their health sector. They argue that every towner is affected by tourists, so every towner should also benefit of tourism. In the town there might be different prices for towners and tourists. And no, it’s not what I thought at first: the same tourist rip-offs as everywhere. The prices would simply reflect the tourists’ contribution to the town’s health care requirements, and that at a level that is stress-free for tourists. What exactly the difference would be, will be part of several experiments. But the campaign team already presented simulations according to which the gap between prices could be as low as ten pence or as high as two pounds, depending on various parameters such as the season (and with that the food prices) or the number of tourists. There is talk of offering people with little money, lower prices which would be compensated by higher prices for those who can afford to pay more. The project concedes that they might end up with an entirely different model, such as a ticket for the stay, in which case prices would be the same for tourists and residents. One remarkable point is that the town is interested in alternatives to profit maximisation. Instead of draining tourists, they determine what the town’s health care sector will need and then they split this amount between the projected number of tourists. Are you experiencing a convolution of your brain? You’re not alone. It’s what the project campaigns keep doing to us: they keep their promise of rethinking everything, of leaving no stone unturned, no narrative or practice unquestioned. How would we know whether a balanced approach to our economy works better if we have never tried it? Not worrying about maximising profits should definitely be less stressful. Much less. And not stressing tourists with rip-offs is less stressful for hosts and visitors. When it comes to tech, the project get’s a home run without obstacles. Their company highFLY introduced modular phones, tablets, watches, laptops in October, last year, which are complemented by highly adaptable apps, developed by their software company: straight forward systems. Together these two companies are the embodiment of: you get what you want — not less, not more. highFLY phones don’t have a vast catalogue of dubious functions and apps. Instead everything is tailored to your preferences, including the freedom to forgo all data collection, constant updates and the like. You can have it all, or you can choose to have a bare minimum. Plus, for someone like me and my family, the fact that you get to assemble your own phone is just great fun. And, yes, I still remember how often my old phone stressed me, and how I began to wonder whether that was intended stress so I would give in at some point and buy a new phone in the hope that the new phone would be better. Not so with highFLY phones. They are a quiet bespoke companion, no pushing, no attention seeking, no selling — just doing what I need it to do: calls, recording notes and transforming them into text (without any company having access to my notes and emails), a low tech camera for snap notes, a simple music player without connection to a platform. Looking at the phone now, I wish I had recorded my stress level while using the old phone. Now I’m never stressed by my phone. Maybe I should have added a fair warning, too. Yes, I root for highFLY. Anyway, by the early afternoon, the Hub’s Campaign Square had three hundred million users who discussed stress factors. The campaign team kept posting more comments on how they would deal with this or that stress factor in their town. I can only recommend to take a look. The event is closed by now, but all posts are online. In the evening, my family sat together again, this time on our sofas, munching pizza, and my daughter remarked: ‘I’m totally stressed! But in a new way because today I paid attention to stress factors, and they’re everywhere. Everywhere! I have a stress overkill, today. Like, there’s unhealthy food at every corner. If I eat it, then the body is stressed because it has to deal with too much sugar, fat and salt, and the mind is stressed because I actually care about what I eat, but that’s not available on the streets. How is it not criminal to sell unhealthy foods?’ My partner nodded. ‘I wonder how the town will deal with that?’ Our youngest child smiled smugly. ‘I read that Megan Rhys, their agriculture person, said: “Freedom does not include the freedom to cause harm. And that applies to foods as much as to air quality and soil health.’ My son smiled. ‘But they don’t want to make this about forbidding. They want to find a way to reconnect us with our bodies so that we care about what we eat. And they want to find ways to reconnect to each other so that we care what we sell to others, and they are looking into ways to reconnect with nature so that we care how about a thriving nature and about how much the land can give us without deteriorating.’ I nodded. ‘A cultural shift. Connections.’ My daughter cut off another piece of pizza and said: ‘Today was Connections Day, too. Maybe they want us to reconnect to our stress so we do something about it.’ What a thought! I thought and couldn’t help feeling very proud of my daughter. And I think she might be right. We are so used to constantly being stressed that we’re rarely aware that much of what stresses us is manmade. Everything that is manmade can be unmade. I remember making a note of this thought when our youngest child said: ‘What really stressed me today, when I went to the grocery, was the lack of products which are not wrapped in plastic. We all know that plastic harms our bodies, harms animals, our waters, our soil. Why again is anyone still using plastic? And that question alone has me easily stressed out for weeks. Where are the politicians who actually serve the people and say: No more fuck-ups! No more bloody crude oil! No more selling our lives for fucking gold! You can’t even fuck gold! It’s totally useless!’ We had all been listening with half-smiles. When our youngest gets angry, there is no use in trying to step in. Besides, they always make good points. My son nodded and said: ‘It’s so many small things that really mess with us, and we don’t even notice it that much any more. Like today I went to a friend’s new place that was nearly impossible to find: there were not adequate signs, no maps, no water fountains. I got thirsty. I had to use the phone. But I hate that because if I look at the display all the time, I don’t see where I’m walking. And I like seeing. Not seeing stresses me.’ My daughter nodded. ‘I walked passed the lake, today. And there’s stuff that just don’t make sense, like a workout space at the shore that’s fully exposed to the sun, no shades. No one in their right mind would use that unless it’s a grey or rainy day. And that made me also realise that heat stresses. People speak of having to get used to heatwaves. But heat stresses: us, plants, animals. Heat isn’t neutral, or something we just have to put up with. And then I came to this spot that looks like a water access. But there’s no indication whether bathing would be safe. That makes no sense either, not with all the pollution that’s going on. I tell you, everything that doesn’t make sense stresses. I don’t want to be stressed. I want to live a long, healthy and fun life.’ My children high-fived, I stood up to get water for everyone, and my partner asked: ‘Did anyone of you follow the Make It Happen Stories marathon?’ I half-turned and saw my son blush. That’s stress, too: keeping secrets. My son cleared his throat. ‘I send in three stories. The feedback was pretty OK.’ My other children gaped and my youngest asked: ‘Pretty OK?’ My son blushed more deeply. ‘Several thousand comments.’ I just love it when our children celebrate each other’s success. I remember wondering about this. But then I realised that my partner and I are always excited about the other’s success. And I’m glad that our children choose to do the same. ‘What are your stories about?’ my daughter asked. ‘My favourite story is called Breaking the Barriers. It’s set on a different planet like most Make it Happen Stories. It’s because on a different planet you can really focus on what you want to think about. Breaking the barriers is about people who live on a planet where everything goes down the drain.’ ‘Like on planet Earth?’ our youngest teased. My son nodded. ‘Yes, but it has only three countries and not as many unresolved traumata from the past. However, you have five groups of people: people who refuse to see that the way they live destroys their lives and the planet. You have people who see but believe that nothing can be done, and they continue with business as usual. You have people who live less harmful lives but are so frustrated and burned out that they need all their energy to get through the day. You have people who embrace exploitation and destruction, blame much of it on people they regard as unworthy and believe that there is only one true way to live and act. And finally, you have people who fight for a world without destruction.’ ‘Sounds pretty earthy to me,’ my daughter said. My son smiled. ‘A group of people went into seclusion, three decades before the events of the story. When they resurface, they see the world with the eyes of outsiders, clearly. And they soon identify what they need to do first.’ ‘Kick the asses of all exploiters and destructors?’ our youngest said. Our son smiled. ‘Nope. Unite those who say that they care about the future of their planet.’ I admit I swallowed, and I swallowed again when my son elaborated how people who had been active for people and planet, including journalists, had not just contributed to the abysmal state of the planet but were so divided, ‘drenched in conceit, self-righteousness, arrogance, lacking the heart, courage and wisdom to recognise their allies, that they failed to unite, and that they failed to elevate and support each other. The destructors,’ my son concluded, ‘could only get this strong because those who cared were too frustrated and too self-righteous to reflect on their actions and to seek out each other. That’s why the secludes decide to find a way to bring together the people who said they cared for planet and people. Because once they are united, they can rethink and reshape the world and everything else will fall into place.’ By now, I’ve read my son’s story, blushing more than ones, and spending some hours afterwards with contacting people I had either neglected or ignored for years. You can read this and other marathon stories on the Hub’s Campaign Square and in the Hub’s library. The stories marathon is not just a showcase of what millions of minds are capable of if they focus on creating visions for the future, it’s also a showcase of giving a stage to a great variety of voices and minds. It is lived empowerment. I will close my report with another stress factor, a stress factor I hadn’t thought off: dogs. There are people who are stressed by dogs, which might not surprise you, but as the owner of two lovely spaniels, I have to admit that I had never put myself in the shoes of someone who can’t see the point of two happy spaniels racing after a ball, ears flapping, spittle flying, jumping high, colliding in the air and one of them catching the ball. What is there not to love? And here is something, I am starting to respect about the town project. They don’t dismiss any stress or fear. They say: ‘OK. Let’s assume ten percent of our towners get stressed by dogs while twenty percent of towners have dogs. What could we do? Could we have time corridors where dog owners are asked to keep their dogs at home so that the ten percent can have a stress-free stroll? Or could dog owners live in the same area and the ten percent on the other side of town? ‘This,’ Alice Adler said, ‘is part of composing our town. We ask: How can we put the town together in a way that benefits all and doesn’t belittle or ignore anyone’s needs?’’ There is also a discussion whether any dogs or other pets should be held in town at all. What are the pros and cons of pets? How to deal with the poo since no plastic won’t be allowed in town? Do pets have an effect on biodiversity? And so on. But these are topics for another day. It is true that the town project is overloading us. But maybe it’s this overload we need to wake up and to claim a future where we have untangled ourselves and our world from all the fabricated things that stress us. I am doubtful about some things the town project suggests, but I am with them on this: For too long we failed to question what makes us and our planet sick. For too long we thought that it was for governments to sort out our troubles. For too long we failed to see that change starts in our minds and that a lot of what makes our world needs a rethink — by all of us.

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 4, building, 2025