Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts
Active Hope - Book Review
When we usually think of hope, we think of it as something passive, like wishing. I was searching for a different vision of hope and when I googled "active hope," I discovered Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone's book.
Although written in 2012, this book is meant for this time. The authors say... "Active hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than something we have."
Book Review of Across That Bridge by John Lewis
I have defined myself as a nonviolent person since reading Gandhi in college. That view of who I am has been challenged many times in my life, but never as much as since trump took up residence in the white house.
I struggle daily, asking myself... what am I capable of to protect my family, friends, strangers and the U.S. from fascism. My thoughts and words have often not been very comforting nor nonviolent.
I picked up John Lewis' book Across That Bridge after he died. I knew he was a great congressman from Georgia, had marched with Martin Luther King and had received the medal of honor from President Obama.
I wish I had paid closer attention while he was alive. I did not know the depth of his spirituality, strength and commitment to nonviolence.
Lewis describes struggle as "the act of making things right," both personally and in society. He goes on to say...
"And it is an expression of the inner dissonance a person experiences within his or her own mind and heart, a continuing disturbance that will not cease until the circumstances have been corrected."
My copy of Across That Bridge bleeds with yellow highlighter. His chapters are broken down into...
Faith
Patience
Study
Truth
Act
Peace
Love
Reconciliation
My favorite quote from his chapter on Peace is "Sometimes you have to be willing to turn things upside down to make them right side up."
I needed this book. I needed it now. It inspired me, it challenged me to be better, it encouraged me to study.
Top Ten Reasons to Keep the Faith by S. Timothy Glasscock
9. We are all in the same boat. While not everyone is as upset with the current president as you are, the social unrest he’s created has just about every citizen longing for peaceful times and less stress. Sometimes, the very people who decide a certain ne’er-do-well is in their best interest to employ, decide that he’s outlasted his usefulness and give him the old heave-ho. When they say “Every dog will have his day,” that’s what they mean.
8. The constitution. It has held up through war, social unrest, devious criminals, gerrymandering, Supreme Court shenanigans, assassinations, civil war, and is still standing strong. While numerous political factions have tried to manipulate its precepts, and lawmakers and lawbreakers alike have defied it, the protections, checks, and balances laid out in that precious document have held fast and kept a million awful things from happening. And it still is.
7. The uncertainty principle. (Not the one by Heisenberg) Robert Burns wrote “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.” And what he means (I think) is that those who think they’ve got it all figured out, rarely do. Yeah, it seems like a great party to throw all rules and established procedures for running a government out the window and do things “off the cuff,” until the very crises and dilemmas for which these procedures were created crop up and BAM! Suddenly you’re the laughing stock of the world. No matter how the current kakistocracy tries to spin the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant economic crash, there’s no way to escape their culpability in our downfall. Trump OWNS this mess and everyone knows it.
Read the rest of Tim's list...
Hope
For the first time since November 2016 I woke up feeling hope. How can that be after this weekend? Yes there was so much sickness and ugliness, but there also were tremendous moments of beauty and coming together.
Let me tell you about my mother and hope. In early fall 2015 my mom realized she was not going to make it until Christmas. At 88 years old her body was failing. But her mind was still sharp. She had some forgetfulness but really not much more than I do.
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| The last photograph I took of my Mom and grand nephew Vaugh. |
Mom was well informed. Every night she watched the news, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. A couple of months before her death she started pulling my sister and me aside asking us to promise that we would not lose hope.
Mom - “Things are going to get really bad I want you both to promise me you will not lose hope because things will change for the better.”
My Sister and Me - "But Mom, what are you talking about? We have an African American president and we are soon going to have the first woman president. Things are getting better.”
Mom - No. Things are going to get really bad. Promise me.
My Sister and I looked at each other, thinking "What is Mom talking about?" But it was important to Mom so we promised.
And yet, this morning, after so very much loss I woke up feeling hope. It has been a hellish weekend, a hellish week, a hellish few years. Yet something feels like it shifted. Maybe it was the pictures of the black men protecting the single policeman. Maybe it was the white policemen kneeling with protestors. Maybe it was those who came together to clean up the streets after the previous nights looting.
Or maybe it was Mom funneling hope to me as I dreamed. Who knows. But this morning I can honestly say to her. Mom I have not lost hope.
Be sure to listen to the beautiful young voices in the video below this post. They will lift you up. To my mom and the Aeolians Oakwood University Alumni Choir - Thank you.
Cynthia
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