Humans do. It’s how we operate; a fundamental part of what makes us. We shape the world around us. We observe. We try to be interesting. We act.

Every action is a protest against what was there before. Every creation is a moment of optimism. Doing is how we are built.

Sometimes we do with our bodies. Remember covid lockdowns? Remember when a new and potentially deadly disease stalked the planet, when nobody was even sure how it spread, but all they knew was that it was spreading fast and killing people? Remember hospitals collapsing under the weight of infections? Remember the hammer and the dance? There were lockdowns and shutdowns and plenty of meltdowns. Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean have a new book, The Big Fail, which argues (as summarized in this New York piece) that lockdowns were an experiment that failed. I don’t know enough about the book’s nuance to make a judgment, but I do know that a million people dying of a novel virus is exactly the kind of moment that drives people to do something. 

Sometimes we do with our money. I read a long piece about how impact investing may have perverse outcomes. Money with an ethical intention, it suggests, may push investment into the wrong places and make it harder for the market. I don’t know enough about the underlying data to make an informed decision on its argument, but I do see an emptiness at the core. Do I want to support the status quo? Or do I want to support possibility?

Sometimes we do with our voices. People in the streets. People in TV and radio broadcasts, on paper. People in web pages and posts. People speaking to each other. People shouting. These are all humans, trying to do something. We can’t escape doing: even when we abstain, it’s an action in and of itself.

In the face of everything out there, it’s what we are. 

What do you do? Save a life. Make a choice. Change a course. 

You do nothing. 

You do something.

There’s a lot of people trying to do something right now.