Ping Pong Diplomacy and other simple acts

I heard an interesting story on the BBC radio talking about how the game of ping pong was instrumental in changing the course of diplomacy. The year was 1971 and the US had little interaction with China since the 1949 revolution. There had been no diplomatic ties, little trade and few contacts between the US and China. Yet, due to a single act of kindness, the US Ping Pong team was the first delegation in decades to visit the country.

According to the BBC story, one of the nine American players missed his bus to the World Championship being held in Japan that year. A Chinese player invited the American to join them on their bus which was also traveling to the tournament. From that little interaction a friendship was formed. In less than a week afterwards, the Chinese government invited the US team to China and to play in exhibition matches. In turn, those exhibitions paved the way for US and Chinese diplomatic interactions.

In listening to the story, I was reminded that it is the little things in life that make the big difference. I also am reminded that it doesn’t take much, or not as much as one would think, to make a change in the world.

Dr. Erica Chenoweth is a public policy professor at Harvard. She has co-written a book: Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolence Conflict. In it, she and her team of researchers looked at all world conflicts- violent and non-violent campaigns from 1900- 2006. They were surprised that the most effective for lasting change were those non-violent campaigns. And what was more surprising it didn’t take that many people- 3.5% of the population to affect change. There just has to be certain criteria and preparation in place.

Dr. Chenoweth’s findings suggest that the individual can make a difference. She was researching conflicts and political campaigns. I think her research can also be applied to various societal norms: it doesn’t take that many people to affect change. I think of Nancy Brinker, sister to Susan G. Komen. Nancy made a promise to her sister to do something to help the women in the hospital who had breast cancer. Suzy Komen wanted the waiting rooms to look better. Nancy Brinker did more than that. After Suzy died, she established the Susan G. Komen Foundation in 1982. Two years’ later was the first Race for the Cure with 800 participants. By 2014 there were over 150 race events worldwide and the foundation has raised billions of dollars for research.

Nancy Brinker is a mover and shaker. But we all have the opportunity to make an impact with our actions. I think it is a matter of concentric circles- little actions, kindnesses, steps that each of us take daily which can/may lead to more people being kind and thoughtful which in turn can lead to a change in society. Individually, it is a good practice to intentionally do kind, small actions. Obviously, it is good for the recipient but more importantly it is good for the one doing the kindness. There is a feeling of goodwill (as well as all the “feel good” endorphins, dopamine, serotonin) for oneself and others. It provides purpose (as in Nancy Brinker’s case) and brings people together in a sense of belonging and community.

In the past it would’ve been called positive peer pressure (not sure if it is still called that): the group norm affects the individual behavior and visa versa. One’s friends or peers encourages one to engage in positive and beneficial behaviors.

Recently, my sister returned from a trip to Norway. She said that Norwegians are very much engaged in practicing sustainability. They have an unofficial campaign: “five items per year” which encourages individuals to purchase only five new (to them) items a year. For the one thing newly purchased, another item has to go. (Presumably for someone else to find “new”.) She said that a friend might comment on a new jacket- “Is that new?” one might ask. “What did you get rid of?” Positive peer pressure encourages the individual to think sustainably and intentionally before purchasing something.

What about you? Do you practice any small actions? What are they? Have you seen any impact from them?

A couple of months ago, I had an idea of putting two plastic storage boxes on my front lawn with a sign on them saying that I was collecting for our local food bank. The idea came to me as I was walking our dog and remembering that at our previous home, various neighborhoods would have food drives. Someone on the street would have a collection sign and box. So, I placed my box on our lawn, sent out an email to my friends in my neighborhood bookclub, invited them to purchase an extra can or box whenever they went to the store, asked them to fill the box and to share the idea of gathering food with their networks. In the past couple of months, we have collected over 150 pounds of food for the local food bank.

The other day, I was alerted by a neighbor that my boxes were missing. Not sure if a newly hired, ambitious trash collector picked it up or if someone took it. Regardless, my boxes were gone. I sent a note out to the local “Nextdoor Neighbor” site asking if anyone inadvertently took the boxes, to keep the food if they need it but please return the boxes. Meanwhile I put out another box.

I received a message from a woman who wanted to help with the cost of the new boxes. Instead I encouraged her to start her own collection box in her neighborhood.

Little things and positive peer “pressure”. I remembered how one person made a difference in my old neighborhood. Hopefully I am making a difference in my current one. And now there might be impact in another neighborhood.

While my food box may not change global relations like the US Ping Pong team or lead to global medical research, the thought behind those acts of kindness are the same. It only takes a simple act- sponsoring a charity race, giving a ride to one who needs it or putting out a box for food - to be part of change.

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(B)Limey

While I am not a naval historian, it has been argued that the British Navy dominated over the French due to the one simple fact that Britannia ruled the waves through lemons.

In 1795 a physician named Gilbert Blane convinced the British Royal Navy to issue some form of lemon juice to its sailors. His order may well have changed the course of history because it allowed Great Britain to successfully defend itself from a Napoleon-led invasion by setting up a blockade of the English Channel. This blockade, during which many ships spent months on the water without coming to port, went on for 20 years—a feat that scurvy would never have allowed.*

The Brits had figured out that lemons prevented scurvy in the sailors. Thus they had the man power (since scurvy could wipe out a crew) and better fitness than the French. Over time, the lemons were switched out to the more plentiful limes thanks to the bounty of the East India colonies, earning the sailors the nickname, lime juicers which became shortened to limeys.

As an urban legend, or more accurately an ocean legend, it sounds great. While there is truth in the story the details are lacking. There were other reasons for the British Navy to prevail as well as there were other attempts, failures and successes to prevent scurvy.

Scurvy was the bane of the sailor’s existence. It is a horrible and gruesome illness leading to death. Over the years, many British crews as well as other sailors were lost to the disease. In 1744 Commodore George Anson returned from circumnavigating the globe. Out of his almost 2,000 original sailors, only 145 returned. While only four sailors died from enemy action, the rest of those lost were due to scurvy.*

Scurvy is the lack of vitamin C in the body. Vitamin C is needed for tissue integrity. It helps with the formation of blood vessels, muscles, cartilage and collagen in bones. It is an anti-oxidant and is key to healing. Humans, some primates, guinea pigs, some bats, birds, and fishes do not produce their own vitamin C and need to ingest it from other sources. It is thought that “in all cases so far studied, the inability to synthesize vitamin C is due to mutations in the L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase (GLO) gene which codes for the enzyme responsible for catalyzing the last step of vitamin C biosynthesis. The bias for mutations in this particular gene is likely due to the fact that losing it only affects vitamin C production.” * As a species, for humans to have the “mutation” is not really a problem as long as we can ingest the vitamin.

All throughout the centuries of sailing and global exploration, different countries and explorers would “discover” that the use of fresh fruit and vegetables containing Vitamin C would prevent or quickly cure the disease. However, that knowledge would be forgotten or overlooked causing scurvy to prevail. Even if it was determined that fruit or vegetables containing vitamin C would prevent scurvy, the practice of using that food was still slow to be adopted in the navy protocol. [Interestingly, it was discovered that the sailors who ate the ship’s rats did not get scurvy since rats produce their own vitamin C. Not my first choice for sourcing vitamin C.]

It was James Lind, a ship’s surgeon who in 1747 did one of the first “scientific studies” with one of the crews. He divided the sickened sailors into six different groups each receiving different treatments. It appears that the group that received lemons and oranges recovered enough to even help out the other sailors who were deteriorating.

The unfortunate thing about Dr. Lind’s “scurvy experiment” was that the cure was once again, forgotten for years. It seems that with the history of scurvy, although an individual ship might have received guidance from natives on vitamin C enriched plants and therefore would physically survive the scourge on the crew, there was never any remembrance or carry through to another ship. There was not a ruling from the Admiralty or any of the other country’s navies until almost fifty years after Dr. Lind did his experiment.

Still, I like the image that one thing, eg limes, can make all the difference. It has me thinking- what one thing could I do or not do that would make the difference to me? What one action or new behavior would put me on a different path?

I think of the individuals who decide to embark on better health and they start by doing one thing- say walking for ten minutes in the morning or doing some chair/standing exercises each hour. Doing one thing will begat another behavior, turn ten minutes of walking into twenty and before they know it, they are moving quite a lot and feeling better.

Same could be said with wanting to improve nutrition: What is one thing that can be incorporated into one’s meals? Perhaps it is adding a cup of fruits or vegetables per day or drinking a glass of water upon arising and before meals. Or, trying to improve nutrition by not mindlessly snacking- to eliminate one snack a day.

I think of individuals who want to go deeper in their spiritual lives: What is one behavior that can help draw one closer to God? Perhaps it is increasing (or starting) Bible reading or prayer. It could be done through a ten minute Bible reading app on one’s phone or taking five to ten minutes before beginning work or opening any social media, to pray.

Or individuals who want to improve their intellectual health: What is one thing that you would like to learn? What small activity can be made each day to achieve that? Learning a new language through small daily classes? Practicing an instrument twenty minutes a day?

Or those who want to improve one’s emotional health? Could the simple act of writing a gratitude list each day or sending a text or email of encouragement to another person help? Or making a plan to do some volunteering?

What about you? What are some “one thing”s you can do to make a change in your current situation? Perhaps it was something that you used to do and was forgotten. Would it be appropriate to reintroduce to your lifestyle? It may not be much and it may not be “the end all, be all” for your life, but it might set you on a trajectory towards something better.

What do you have to lose? The Dr. Lind’s citrus eating experiment was by far (to me) the most palatable of the “solutions” at the time: others included urine mouthwash, “elixir vitriol”, seawater, cider. Over the years, it would be “re- discovered” that citrus juice and vitamin C prevented scurvy and then that information would lost along the way. Perhaps because it was too obvious and too simple?

That is the other thought about doing “one thing”: it may be an obvious and simple activity/behavior but the overall achievement can be life changing.

*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145266/. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-age-of-scurvy. https://theconversation.com/how-the-british-defeated-napoleon-with-citrus-fruit-58826.