Have you noticed the numerous articles and books on the topic of hope lately? It’s as if we need to cultivate hope for each other.
The Daily Good published a poem by Wendell Berry. He writes…
It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,
for hope must not depend on feeling good
and there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.
You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality
of the future, which surely will surprise us,
and hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction
any more than by wishing. But stop dithering.
The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?
Maria Shriver reflected in her Sunday Paper on hope as she wove together her concerns about Zuckerberg’s new “Metaverse” contrasted with Pope John Paul and Biden meeting on climate change. She writes “It reminded me that if we have a vision — if we have a conviction — we must stay the course. It reminded me that we can’t worry about the metaverse while our universe is, in such a precarious way, right here, right now. We can and should focus on the here and now and our ability to affect our world in a positive way. This is a job for all of us to do. We can all connect with other human beings. We can all make an effort to listen to one another and work together to make our neighborhoods and our communities better.
Jane Goodall shares her thoughts on hope with author Doug Abrams in The Book of Hope. She reflects on hope, optimism and pessimists. “Well I guess a person either is or isn’t an optimist. It’s a disposition or a philosophy of life. As an optimist you can just have the feeling, “Oh, it’ll be all right.” It’s the opposite of pessimist, who says, “Oh that’s never going to work”. “Hope on the other hand is a stubborn determination to do all you can to make it work. And hope is something we can cultivate. It can change over the course of a lifetime”.
Even the New York Times jumped into hope this weekend with reflections on politics and hope.They shared Greta Thornberg’s newest video where she wrestles with “hope, panic and hearts on fire”. She claims “Hope comes from the people, from democracy, from you.” Her push against politics reminds us of David Orr’s reflections that “hope is a verb with it’s sleeves rolled up.”
Where have you seen messages of hope in the last few weeks? Where have you read about hope? What images keep you hopeful?
Which of these images give you hope? Hope Images
How can we cultivate hope together? Let’s roll up our sleeves and cultivate hope for each other, our communities and the world.
We can do this, together.
