Telling and Tending Stories.

Fireworks go off over bare trees and an apartment building.

1 January, 2025

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Let’s play a game. Let’s call it “What if, in 2025 . . .?”

Humanity is wrestling with itself for its own survival. With the blunt instruments of bombs, disinformation overwhelm, and two-party elections, we conduct our philosophical explorations into when the deaths of children are justified, and who has the right to kill them; into whether self-governance is even a worthy goal if it doesn’t achieve utopia, or if it must be shared with those we hate; into whether any miracle on God’s green earth can equal the miracle of a machine that assembles words into something shaped like a poem.

It is inevitable to be tired and fearful. It is easy to be cynical. But for the purposes of this game, let’s not be. Instead, just in this space, let’s let our imaginations run outrageously wild. Think of a history book 100 or 300 years from now. In our wildest hopes, what might it say?

I know this could easily become a laundry list of wishes, beginning and ending with “world peace.” I encourage you to be specific, and maybe confine yourself to two or three What Ifs. Share yours in the comments, or, if you’d rather, email or text them to me, and I can add them to the whole.

I’ll go first:

What if, in 2025, rents don’t go up?

What if, in 2025, every man who puts his hand on a holy book and swears an oath of office is a gentle man?

What if, in 2025, all the old growth forests grow another year older?

Thanks for playing. Frohes Neues Jahr!

12 responses to “1 January, 2025”

  1. Tom Northenscold Avatar

    What if, in 2025, no child or teacher dies in a school shooting.

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      What if. What if this really is the year? What if, in 100 years, history books say, “2025 was the year the school shootings stopped in the USA. As teachers and children practiced their active-shooter drills, the weeks and months passed quietly. At the end of 2025, the headline across the country was ‘entire year passes with no shootings in schools.’ It took time, but over the years, the bullet-proof backpack sales fell. The metal detectors were slowly removed. The doors were unlocked, and the windows opened. Cops left the hallways and returned to the streets. Teachers stopped falling asleep at night wondering whether they’d throw themselves in front of their students or save themselves for their own children, and instead dreamed of lesson plans. Parents began to allow their children to go to school without cell phones and smart watches, more sure that their children would return home safely at the end of every day. Test scores rose, and behavioral problems fell. Teachers’ colleges began to see rises in enrollment. The NRA never again advocated for arming teachers, no politician ever again tweeted ‘thoughts and prayers’ over the headline of murdered children in their state, and no one called grieving parents liars and paid actors ever again.”

      Thank you, Tom, for helping me imagine this! I hope your holidays have been warm and joyful, and I hope your new year is as well! Sending love to you and your family!

  2. Dan White Avatar
    Dan White

    What if our churches focused on our relationship with God?
    What if those barriers we keep in place fell away and we could see ourselves as others see us?
    What if we fought to see ourselves in the other?

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      WHAT IF? I didn’t anticipate how inspiring asking y’all to share would be to me? What wonderful things to imagine. Thank you, Dan!

      I can help with the second one a bit: I see you as a person of immense integrity, sincerity, and compassion, with electric energy and drive and the know-how to get things done in service of that which feels necessary and urgent to you–which it is! Hoping your new year brings you healing and a deep knowledge, every day, of your belovedness. Thank you for sharing!

  3. Peter S Avatar
    Peter S

    What if, in 2025, everyone had a safe place to live, with a door that would lock, a way to cook and wash, and a toilet.

    What if, in 2025, those we elect really believed in helping everyone.

    What if, in 2025, the institutions we are a part of really found ways to help the smallest communities among us.

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      WHAT IF? Thank you for sharing these, Peter. I love imagining each of these! I’d love to hear more of what you mean by “the smallest communities.” I can imagine so many possibilities.

      Happy New Year!

  4. Joelle Avatar
    Joelle

    What if, in 2025, in my city, no one would be sleeping in the cold under plastic tents and instead had a warm bed, blanket and pillow?

    What if, in 2025, I lived in belief of bounty rather than scarcity and gave more of my wealth away?

    What if, in 2025, I stopped judging others and paused instead to see their intrinsic goodness?

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      WHAT IF indeed, Joelle? Thank you for sharing these! I love them. Happy New Year to you!

  5. Karen Seay Avatar
    Karen Seay

    Thank you, Mili, for posing this challenge! I have spent the past couple of hours taking this imaginative “play” very seriously. It’s not easy, is it, to let our imaginations offer us visions of what might be different if we actually decided we want something different than the way things are?

    Here are my three hard-thought-out “what ifs”:

    What if, in 2025, each human being takes conscious note of JUST ONE BEAUTIFUL THING we encounter (see, hear, touch, feel, smell) each day that was NOT made by human hands or ingenuity?

    What if, in 2025, we decide that curiosity and kindness will define our approach toward every new person we meet or encounter?

    What if, in 2025, each child who needs/wants a safe, comfortable, durable living space finds one?

    I LOVE your what-ifs, especially the second one!

    Happy New Year! ♥️

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      I love that – thank you, Mama! It is the gift and responsibility of artists, I believe, to invite this imaginative work. The fact that it took real time and effort shows that it is exactly the opposite of what our knee-jerk reaction, instant gratification culture rewards. And I bet it feels better to do this than to write a takedown in response to a bad opinion piece in the newspaper! I hope it did, anyway. I love you!

  6. Cecelia Avatar

    What if, 100 years from now, our kids learn in school about how humans used to do something called “bombing” and “shooting” each other?

    What if, 50 years from now, all energy we use around the world is renewable and sustainable?

    What if, ten years from now, POTUS is in her second term — re-elected by an overwhelming popular vote?

    THANKS for this invitation to dream, E!

    1. Emilia Avatar
      Emilia

      Agh, I love all of these! So, so good to hear from you, Cecelia! I hope your holidays were beautiful and that this new year brings joy, fulfillment, deep collaboration, surprising innovation, and ample rest. It always makes me smile to see your newsletter in my inbox (and there is one there right now!). Big love to you and Arun!

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