Trend Forecast For Spring: Humility

Why you should wish a stranger a good morning

Is the story of Adam and Eve inherently misogynistic? Chantelle what does this have to do with kindness in spring? I need you to be patient. Funnily enough I will not actually be answering the first question because that is not the best part. The interesting part is why is a story of one person being born to help another person so offensive?

We live in a society that demands individualism and hyper independence, as these are the necessary evils that feed capitalism. Despite this we are craving community, a community in which we host dinner parties, we make our friends cute gifts, a community in which we are the hero - and there lies the problem. In this vision of community that I see dreamt about online it’s all about what we want to do for the community, which is incredibly important, but this is still individualistic and at some point we will need to humble ourselves and recognise that we need help. That is what community is for. Its a balance of giving and receiving.

To answer the main question of ‘why is a story of one person being born to help another person so offensive?’, Western culture has replaced humility with hubris. Our understanding of the ‘person in need of help’ and ‘helper’ dynamic has been reimagined through a colonial lens of domination and submission. When we look at life like this it is easy to assume that the ‘helper’ Eve must submit to the ‘person in need of help’ Adam. This in my opinion is far from reality, genuinely asking for help requires humility and the understanding that we cannot do everything by ourselves. When we help or receive help within our communities we should be seeing each other as equals and this requires the decolonisation of our minds.

A simple exercise for this is to recognise that you actually want a community, perhaps its as small as recognising that it would be lovely if someone said good morning to you today. Ask someone to wish you a good morning by simply wishing them a good morning. Smile at someone because you could really use their smile today. Start up a conversation because it would be kind of that person to take the time to speak with you. If you’re already thinking that this seems desperate, that’s it. You’ve got it. You are desperate and that’s okay. You need to be okay with this or your communal space becomes a place for showing off your independence, a place free from vulnerability. And soon enough you’ll be back on the internet complaining about not having people to rely on.

Spring is often regarded as a period of new beginnings, after a period of hibernation we can come out to bloom. Spring is a great time for learning, we can learn a lot from nature and its perfectly balanced ecosystem. A wildflower field is a place filled with many different creatures that all rely on each other to flourish. Of course I could plant a single flower in my garden and it could survive, but life is about more than surviving, strive to be a part of an interdependent meadow.

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Helloooo!! I hope you had a lovely week!! This week I’ve just been trying my best its not been great if I’m honest but hopefully next week is better!

I have to say I’m Christian so of course I’m not impartial in the debate on Adam and Eve, - which is why it’s important to read critically - but I wanted to bring a different perspective to this conversation, rather than focusing on Adam and Eve themselves. I recently just got an allotment hence my excitement about spring! I feel like I’ve been so hesitant to develop my community in Manchester because I feel like I’m going to leave so what the point, three years later and I’m still here lol. So I’ll be taking it a bit more seriously this year. Wishing you the best out there it’s not easy!!