Hope is a State of Mind, Not of the World…

It’s been a couple of difficult weeks for me.  You may have noticed that I didn’t publish a blog last week.  I’ve been trying to make meaning out of the strange events we are experiencing in the US and trying to find Hope in them.  Needless to say it’s been a struggle…

I keep expecting that the US has hit rock bottom, so we can start rising from the ashes – of coronavirus, systemic racism, and a political environment of absurdity.  And I keep being surprised that there are new lows.  People making death threats against public health officials because they fear contact tracing.  People physically attacking others for wearing masks in public places.  Continued instances of police brutality and misuse of force.  Continued acts of hate and “othering”.  A political landscape where an entire party refuses to acknowledge that the emperor has no clothes, so to speak.  Threats to invalidate Obamacare and take health care away in the midst of a pandemic.  These things make absolutely no sense to me, the thinking behind them is completely foreign to me. 

Maybe, getting to the other side of this isn’t about finding Hope amidst current events.  Vaclav Havel, who was a Czech statesman, writer and former dissident, said,

“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.”

Vaclav Havel

Havel also said,

“Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.”

Vaclac Havel

So with all of that in mind, as much as I hope we are headed to a great awakening and a new era of human enlightenment, maybe I have to be content with standing with those who have been marginalized and oppressed and fighting for justice, equity and fairness…Doing this because it’s worthwhile and right, not necessarily because it’s going to succeed. 

Maybe, it comes down to when faced with hopelessness in the world around me, I STILL MUST CHOOSE HOPE and that Hope comes from inside me. It comes down to what we each choose to believe in and stand for in this world, and act into.  I wonder, my friends on this journey of Hope, how you are handling the ups and downs of our world.  What is giving you Hope?    

With Love and Hope,

Colleen