“To be hopeful in bad times is not being foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of competition and cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness… The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
— Howard Zinn
I didn’t make it 15 pages into writing You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not before I quoted the words above, in a discussion of what ‘hope’ is and isn’t. (p.14). I return to them often, and they remind me of things I believe when I forget. I don’t know about you, but in times of crisis and high emotion, I find that it’s very easy to forget.
Here’s what I believe — the opposite of hope is not pessimism (or an even worse interpretation, realism). The opposite of hope is despair. The problem with despair is not that it feels bad. That’s only a personal, individual cost. The problem with despair is that it leads to inaction. And inaction doesn’t usually help much in the effort to make things better. So that cost is to others as well as ourselves.
The kind of hope that interests me most is not an emotion. It’s a choice as to what we will do. Without hope, we can’t really take action. There would be no point. But in the end, I think that kind of nihilism is a cop out. Saying “nothing I do is going to help” is a great excuse not to do anything. I don’t want to give myself that excuse.
So with a reminder from Howard Zinn (via my friend Maree Robertson), I’m going to try to choose the kind of hope that leads to action, because it has been my lived experience that action sometimes leads to better outcomes, and inaction rarely does. Hope gives me better odds, so if I care about the people and the world around me, it has to be my choice.
That kind of hope, as Vaçlav Havel explained many years ago, has nothing to do with the odds of things going well. It has to do with where we point our lives toward, and where we carve out space for the miracles. Havel put it more succinctly when he said, “Hope is not prognostication, it is an orientation of the spirit.”
I took the picture at the top of the page this morning from the roof of my hotel in Antigua. Staring at something as powerful as a volcano helpfully reminds me that there are some things that are beyond my control, and that’s a good reminder. But at the same time, being here in Guatemala always reminds me that there are so many things we can change, if we change them together; if we choose to show up, and remember that the real power of one, ironically, lies in activating the power of many. It is amazing and inspiring to see old friends and listen to the next generation of music students in El Tejar play extraordinary music, taught by a teacher I met when she was a 9-year-old student in the same program. That cute kid on the left with the recorder? That’s Sarita, 12 years ago this summer, playing with me on stage at the LEAF festival.
…and this is Sarita now, working as a music teacher and studying in Guatemala City for a university degree in marimba performance (marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala). It is amazing for me to have been a part of this work for twenty years. I’ve literally seen a generation come through the program.
The music program is only a part of the work Senderos is doing, but it demonstrates the principle that through cooperation with other organizations like LEAF International and with the support of hundreds (thousands?) of people who have contributed, spread the word, and come to see for themselves, we have had significant and positive impact on hundreds of Guatemalan children, and who knows where the ripples go from there.
So at a time when politics devolves into violence, and cheap and easy answers appeal to so many, I hope you won’t give up.
Keep choosing hope, friends. We all need it. And you.
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