Lifting the veil

A popular Zen mantra says “Jump—and a net will appear.” It’s supposed to encourage positive risk-taking, plunging into the unknown with an open mind. We’re not actually suggesting leaping over a bridge or a cliff, but we want to encourage you to take a risk in the new year—be happy.

Because if we, as individuals, obtain a certain degree of peace, then we can find some common ground as a community, right? With constant access to news from around the world, we tend to hear more negative than positive. Once again, it was a rough year, with acts of extreme violence, natural disasters, global conflict, and a brutal election from which we’re all trying to move on. But what’s new? On one hand, it’s imperative that we’re aware of hardships people face outside of our little bubbles, but it also makes it hard to escape from a consistent feed of discouragement.

It just requires a shift in perspective to funnel the bad into something productive. Happiness is a science, and, like all sciences, takes many experiments before revealing the desired outcome. It largely depends on the chemical balance in our brain, which means it has a formula. It’s simple, really. So here’s our hypothesis: We bet that if this city starts thinking more about the importance of community and innovation, we’ll all be happier for it. And what better time to start doing that than Jan. 1?

Making New Year’s resolutions apparently isn’t cool anymore, but few events restart and recharge a person’s life like the annual transition of the Gregorian calendar. All is in transition—the Earth continues to spin on its axis, and we grow, change and age along with it. A destructive, earth-shattering apocalypse didn’t happen last week, but it did seem to indicate a sort of societal shift, a united desire to look forward to the potential of the future rather than fear it. One translation of the Greek word “apocalypse” means “lifting the veil.” It’s time to lift the veils that cloud our judgment and separate us as a community, and instead, expose what makes us vulnerable—a hesitant optimism that we really do believe in this place, that we envision a city with opportunities. German neuroscientist Stefan Klein writes, in the book The Science of Happiness, “Our resolve in facing life head-on depends much more on the way we assess a situation than on reality.” And the reality is, this year was a mixed bag, so what do we do now? Wallow in the bad? Or dive head first into the abyss of negativity to try to find the light?

We have a few New Year’s resolutions for you. Strive to be healthier. Develop a new skill. Teach yourself, then teach others. Make new friends. And be nice to each other, dammit.

We’re not sure what 2013 will hold for Northern Nevada, but we’re certain about one thing—it’s time to jump in and get our hands dirty making this city better. What do we have to lose?