I love you, Melbourne
As we head towards Christmas, I'm enormously grateful.
Grateful that I get to head over to my cousin Karen's house and have a huge Christmas lunch with the extended family on my father's side. Dad died 20 years ago, but still every second year we trek over to one of his nieces' houses and share a delicious lunch with wonderful people.
The fact that we get to do that this year is particularly special. In late July, Victoria recorded 723 cases of coronavirus in a single day, almost all of which were in Melbourne. We were on the precipice of catastrophe. Mistakes and blunders had been made, and the exponential nature of the virus was about to tear at the very fabric of our society (let alone the healthcare system!). Difficult decisions had to be made, and genuine sacrifices by literally millions of people were required in order to contain the disaster.
With very few exceptions, the people of Melbourne pulled together, put on a brave face and did what needed to be done. Collectively, this city of five million people absolutely crushed the coronavirus, and it wasn't easy. People have sacrificed freedom, recreation, finances, and in some cases parts of their sanity, in order to collectively beat this pathogen.
Melbourne has done incredibly well. It’s easy to focus on problems and mistakes, to raise ones' voice and cast blame. But the reason most people rise to the occasion when facing a challenge is the respect and esteem of their peers. Over the last few months, the eyes of Melburnians have carried a warmth, a solidarity, a respect for the life and sacrifices of the people behind the masks, acting carefully and considerately with everyone around them. I've felt Melburnians sharing respect and esteem for each other in the most banal of daily activity.
Whatever your tribe, do everything you can to amplify those signals within your groups. Respect and esteem are currencies of immeasurable value. They inspire and motivate people in ways that bonuses and material rewards never could. When even just a few people of influence within a tribe make the effort to boost the visibility of those acting in ways that earn the respect and esteem of their peers, the collective energy of the tribe can shift in incredibly powerful ways, and surprisingly quickly.
It's a change worth making.
Wherever you are in the world and whatever the state of the pandemic around you, I wish you the safest and happiest holiday period you can manage in the circumstances.
And Melbourne? I know most of you will never read this, but I just want to say how grateful I am for everything you sacrificed to give us the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with our extended family. I'm genuinely honoured to live among such an egalitarian group of (five million!) people. You're all champions.
Photo by Yong Chuan Tan on Unsplash