In his Long Now talk earlier this summer, David Byrne announced that he would soon launch a new website called Reasons to Be Cheerful. The premise, Byrne said, was to document stories and projects that give cause for optimism in troubles times. He was after solutions-oriented efforts that provided tangible lessons that could be broadly utilized in different parts of the world.
“I didn’t want something that would only be applied to one culture,” Byrne said.
Reasons to Be Cheerful has now officially launched. Here is Byrne on the project from the press release:
It often seems as if the world is going straight to Hell. I wake up in the morning, I look at the paper, and I say to myself, “Oh no!” Often I’m depressed for half the day. I imagine some of you feel the same.
Recently, I realized this isn’t helping. Nothing changes when you’re numb. So, as a kind of remedy, and possibly as a kind of therapy, I started collecting good news. Not schmaltzy, feel-good news, but stuff that reminded me, “Hey, there’s positive stuff going on! People are solving problems and it’s making a difference!”
I began telling others about what I’d found.
Their responses were encouraging, so I created a website called Reasons to be Cheerful and started writing. Later on, I realized I wanted to make the endeavor a bit more formal. So we got a team together and began commissioning stories from other writers and redesigned the website. Today, we’re relaunching Reasons to be Cheerful as an ongoing editorial project.
We’re telling stories that reveal that there are, in fact, a surprising number of reasons to feel cheerful — that provide a more optimistic and, we believe, more accurate depiction of the world. We hope to balance out some of the amplified negativity and show that things might not be as bad as we think. Stop by whenever you need a reminder.
Learn More
- Byrne also released a trailer for the website, which you can watch below:
- Watch David Byrne’s Long Now talk here.
