Everything is too much right now: from the climate (more wildfires in Canada) to politics (Trump admin’s crackdown on protests in LA) to higher ed (cuts in the impending NH state budget). Which wildfires can we put out, which do we merely contain, and which do we ignore through some incalculable triage?

It’s hard to maintain hope right now, but I’ve got a death grip on it wherever I can find it. And I think that Design Forward is a good place this summer to cultivate hope. Since last November, I’ve been trying to frame my goals, dreams, anxieties, and so forth upon practical next steps rather than ultimate ends: not, “how do we fix this mess?” but, “what can we do today to reduce harm, foster creativity and curiosity, and keep ourselves from burning out?” In the terms of DF, designing forward rather than backward.

I’m inspired here by Jose Munoz’s book Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, which aims to chart forward-thinking that’s neither mired in the present nor unattainably utopian:

“Some will say that all we have are the pleasures of this moment, but we must never settle for that minimal transport; we must dream and enact new and better pleasures, new ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds.” (1)

Of course, this takes time, energy, focus, and room to breathe. How can we build from today to tomorrow with the many wildfires around us?

That’s what I’m rethinking this summer.