Merging in a Time of Change
By Aaron Fairchild + Bec Chapin, Co-CEOs of Green Canopy NODE
Green Canopy and NODE have merged into one company! We are excited to share why Green Canopy NODE, a Social Purpose Corporation, has combined – and it is not simply because we can do more together than on our own.
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 spring equinox, the virus was rapidly spreading through our region; restaurants closed, employees were laid-off, markets gyrated, investors panicked, and the collective human consciousness paused in cautious curiosity and awe. It was at that time, as an unraveling was occurring, that we, Bec and Aaron, came together to explore how we could help.
Today, in the knowledge that a seismic psychological and physical quake continues to tremble across the globe, we have come together in hope. In this hopeful work, like so many of us, we are asking how long will this go on? Will the impacts of COVID transform our society for the better? What more can be done to pull a better future forward?
Where do we source hope?
We have a right to be in as dark a mood as we want, because things are indeed bleak. But hope is a virtue – which is to say, it’s an excellence that we aspire to. No matter how dark your mood is, you still have a responsibility to aspire to the virtuous. Hope is a refusal to succumb to despair and nihilism.”
– Cornel West, Sun Interview, September, 2018“I should say that hope for me is distinct from idealism or optimism. It has nothing to do with wishful thinking. It is a muscle, a practice, a choice: to live open-eyed and wholehearted in the world as it is and not as we wish it to be.”
– Krista Tippet“Hope, in a deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, but, rather, an ability to work for something that is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed … Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
– Vaclav Havel
Within these reflections, we find an active hope, not simply a refusal to succumb. Hope is an inner conviction, within darkness, to pursue a pathway toward light. Hope does not require optimism, nor should it be confused with optimism. Hope is all the good that individuals do in the face of uncertainty and a surrounding sense of despair. To be hopeful is to be actively compassionate during times of uncertainty; to be virtuous in the face of uncertainty is to be hopeful.
During a pandemic, NODE and Green Canopy merged in hope. With a bias to action and a determination to be of service to communities and the environment, the team of Green Canopy NODE is not just looking to change the cost and sustainability equation of housing, we also want to change how we work together to build the future, and how we live together in the future we all build. We believe that through a wholesome and active hope we can help society and a planet in need.
In this season, we, Aaron and Bec, are grateful to combine forces within one dedicated company of people to help transform ourselves and the world around us. Thank you for supporting us, cheering us on, investing in our shared sense of active, virtuous hope, and for your unacknowledged acts of kindness that help us all heal.