The Breakfast Club

It feels like we're all stuck in Saturday detention.

So much of the world today feels out of our control. The economy, politics, climate, AI, our jobs. These big, messy forces that are shaping our lives in ways we don't fully understand. We debate about them, we distrust the system, we pushback on the people in charge, we try to figure whose side everyone is on. It feels a lot like high school.

And if high school had a perfect metaphor for these times, it's The Breakfast Club.

In the movie, five kids from different circles, each with their own labels, assumptions, and backstory find themselves trapped in Saturday detention under the watch of an authoritarian teacher, the Bull. They all don't want to be there. They clash, they challenge each other, and they all try to prove they are right. They just can’t get along.

But as the day drags on, something shifts. They start to talk, to share, to listen. They don't immediately become best friends, but they begin to understand one another a bit more, realizing they are more than just what's on the outside or how they initially saw each other and their assumptions about one another. They make it through detention not by rebelling, but by finding connection with each other.

And maybe that's the choice we have in front of us.

We're living in an era of uncertainty and fear. Institutions don't feel as stable as they once did. Trust has been eroded, and people are divided. The world is moving at a pace that makes it so hard to keep up. It makes us feel powerless, like students sitting in a classroom where the rules don't make sense and the person in charge seems more interested in control than fairness.

We don't have to have the same perspectives or experiences. But if we want to navigate the future, we have to be willing to have the conversations, to recognize each other as more than just stereotypes and make those human connections, just like how Claire, Bender, Bryan, Andrew and Allison had nothing in common except for each other. We have to understand that no one is making it through this alone.

We can't change the fact that we're in Saturday detention. But we can decide how we show up in it. Do we spend our time fighting each other, or do we try to figure out a way forward together?

You see us as you want to see us.