Sometimes the world seems more dangerous and doomed than ever. Sometimes people are more confused and vile than seems possible. Like, does that troll have a hollow leg where he keeps his vicious, willful blindness? Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever JUST STOP making the same mistakes over and over and over.
Then I take a breath.
Yes, there is fear. (Fear is the worm-eaten heart of the world’s evils. Hate is the fear of otherness. Greed is the fear of losing. Injustice is the fear of empathy.) There is static and, worse, cultivated entropy. There are wounds that go so deep the scars will never fade.
But I believe light and goodness, peace, love, and understanding will win the day. Do I have any proof for that belief? Er, no. Maybe I’ll say the mere fact that galaxies formed out of the interstellar dust shows that the universe* has an impulse toward order and beauty and forward momentum. (*You can call this God if you like. It gets us to the same place.) But I’ll settle for hope.
Sometimes I worry that hope is just the cheerful flipside of willful blindness… So then I take another breath. And each breath is a promise that we don’t stop here, that we can do better, BE better. We owe those steady, deep breaths to those who came before us and who will come after us, so that their hopes are honored.
How do we get there? So many ways. Pick one or two or three. Hug loved ones and be kind to strangers. Recycle. Seek the truth, even when it stings. Vote with conscience. Donate in constructive ways to worthwhile causes. Breathe. I dunno, maybe dream up a romance novel! Whatever you choose, share your hope with the world and we WILL make it better.
Jessa Slade 