Building Arks, Weaving Bridges
A Journey from Contempt to Connection
Coauthored with Gemini 2.5 Pro
As we look at the world around us, it’s easy to feel like we’re standing in the middle of a storm.
It’s not a storm of wind and rain. It’s something deeper: a storm of outrage, disconnection, fear, and confusion. It’s a storm within our institutions, our relationships, and even ourselves.
The metaphor of a great flood is one of humanity’s most ancient ways of describing a moment of profound disruption and reckoning. It endures across cultures—from Noah to Gilgamesh to Manu—because it speaks to a deep truth: the most dangerous floods are often moral, ethical, and spiritual.
Naming the True Storm: The Poison of Contempt
As a team dedicated to civic renewal, we’ve struggled with how to honestly name the turbulence of our time. The most corrosive element we face is not simple disagreement or polarization. It is contempt.
Contempt is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.
In my work as a psychiatrist, I recognize this toxin immediately. Contempt is the number one predictor of divorce. It is a relational acid that “eliminates empathy and shared value.” You see it in the sneer, the sarcasm, the eye-roll. It is the moment we stop seeing people we disagree with as people and start seeing them as worthless.
Anger, by contrast, is a form of engagement. Contempt is a dismissal—a dehumanization.
When this poison is “nationalized,” the entire civic body begins to break down. We are not just in a fight; we are in a doomed relationship, spiraling toward a “civic divorce.”
This reframes our entire problem. You cannot debate contempt away. You cannot “win” an argument against it.
You must treat it.
Our Response: Arks for Resilience, Bridges for Connection
This is why we are launching Building Arks, Weaving Bridges.
This series is a practical and spiritual roadmap for navigating our turbulent times. It is an invitation to respond to this storm not with despair, but with courage, clarity, and commitment.
The journey requires two distinct, essential practices:
Building ARKS: An “Ark” is a vessel of intentional design. It’s our practice of Resilience. This is the vital inner work of protecting what is essential, creating a sanctuary for our minds, and staying grounded in our values when the world is in chaos. It’s how we survive the storm with our integrity intact.
Weaving BRIDGES: An Ark alone is a bunker. It’s self-preservation, not renewal. Noah, in the ancient story, saved himself but failed to save his world. Our crisis of contempt won’t be solved by better bunkers; it will be solved by Bridges. Bridges are our practice of Connection and Citizen Engagement. This is the difficult outer work of crossing divides, engaging in difficult conversations, building community, and actively participating in the hard, hopeful work of self-government.
This series is our guide to doing both.
The Journey Begins Now
Our journey begins not with a lecture, but with a practice. The most powerful antidote to contempt is gratitude.
We are launching this series with our first civic ritual, designed for your Thanksgiving table:
🕯️ A Civic Ritual for Thanksgiving: Gratitude in the Age of Contempt
This is a new tradition. It’s a shared table and a call to citizenship. It provides a simple, structured way to reclaim gratitude as a revolutionary tool for healing—a way to stop seeing each other as enemies and start seeing each other as fellow citizens.
The Plan for the Coming Year
This Thanksgiving ritual is the first step on a year-long journey. Building Arks, Weaving Bridges is a 7-part series that will guide us through a process of inner grounding (Arks) and outer engagement (Bridges).
Here is the path we will walk together:
Naming the Storm (Courageous awareness)
Building the Ark (Inner resilience)
Choosing Responsibility (The pivot to public integrity)
Gathering the Animals (Integrating our “shadow” selves)
Planting After the Flood (Taking initiative in an age of cynicism)
Becoming the Rainbow (Holding difference with dignity)
Renewing the Covenant (From survival to sacred, civic commitment)
Each step will offer reflections, practices for building your Ark, and concrete actions for weaving Bridges in your community.
An Invitation to Build
This series is the heart of Moonshot Press and Project 2026. It is our “moonshot” to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence by preparing ourselves, relationally and spiritually, for the hard work of democracy.
We’re not just commemorating the past. We’re preparing for the next 250 years—and inviting you to help shape them.
👉 Join the movement by hosting or attending the Civic Ritual for Thanksgiving this holiday.
👉 Follow this series as we introduce new rituals, practices, and reflections throughout the year.
🌐 Learn more, access the Thanksgiving ritual, and share your story at moonshot.press.
You are not alone in this storm. Let’s get to work.
