Member-only story
Room for mourning as key to smoother transitions
Resistance against a range of transitions finds its origins less in a fear of having no viable future than in the (de)pressing feeling of a past, and with some prosaic sense perhaps Paradise?, lost. Do we want to organise transitions in a smoother way? Then it might help to allow sufficient and adequate room for mourning, in particular for the ones who actually do face a loss. Even if the actual gains of the transition will quickly kick in for them as well.
We are virtually drowning in transitions. Climate/ energy being a well known one. But we are also experiencing the transition towards a circular society (resource transition), regenerative agriculture, sustainable food systems (‘the protein revolution’), a more inclusively functioning financial system, and so on. A transition in its core is a large scale change in society, which feels fundamental in nature, and in fact is. There is not a fixed or agreed starting point, often no absolute end point, there hardly ever is one actor who controls the whole show, not everyone joins at the same time, or for the same reason, and not everyone is affected in the same way or degree. Nevertheless, sooner or later we all will have to deal with it, whether we like it or not.
