Dear Friends,
I send along my warmest greetings to you in these challenging days. I hope this finds you and your family in good health, and remaining encouraged for better days ahead.
Since the end of the Senate campaign in 2018, my family and I have been keeping a low profile. One reason is that the better part of 2019 was spent writing a book (more on that in a moment), but principally because in this unsettling season of political and public life, I haven’t been able to figure out the right places to lean in and help.THERE IS NO THEM. THERE IS ONLY US.
Over the last few years in public life and seeing lots of pain and fear out there, I found our problems to be beyond politics and policy. So many of us in the US have forgotten their purpose and role, and as a consequence, death and despair and division seem to be on the march. There were 150,000 deaths of despair in the US last year, with life expectancy going down because we are killing ourselves, and in every demographic, we feel more anxious, depressed, lonely, alienated and divided than ever before.
Sadly, all this was before the effects of the corona pandemic, which obviously can’t help matters.
To meet this need, my team and I have been working the last 15 months to launch a project we call American Awakening — a Campaign for the Soul of America. We want to lean in to slay this giant of death and despair in this American moment, launching with all the means at our disposal — books, film, podcasts, concerts and immersive entertainment experiences (when we can all gather together in public once again).
The book is entitled American Awakening: 8 Principles to Restore the Soul of America, published by Harper Collins at the end of July (between the two conventions — emphasizing we are running a different kind of campaign here!).
But ahead of that time, while the world has slowed and people are staying at home, we have launched a daily livestream and podcast “Signs of Life”, celebrating that enduring principle that we are made to live in hope and courage, and to transcend the challenges of these tough days.
Please continue to visit us at americanawakening.us for more on what we are up to, and sign up for updates as they evolve.
Joel Searby
