Sunday’s thought from Howard Zinn: “TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. 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.”
Sunday, noon, 26 degrees, north wind, snowing lightly, walking in the woods near Rutzebeck Lake, about 7 miles south of home.
In church we celebrated the first Sunday in Advent by lighting the Hope candle, and singing O Come, O Come Emmanual. It can be a challenge to be hopeful, but we must meet it– and I think the best explanation of why this matters so much is Howard Zinn’s, so I share it with you.
This is also the season where we pay attention to what we feel and see and believe, and look at the world with new eyes, seeking the divine in it– Sort of like that moment in the woods today when my perspective changed. All I did was look up– but the forest was transformed from straight and narrow to a starburst. I was in the same place, at the same time– and everything was new. It was a kind of minor miracle, don’t you think?
And here’s something funny– (laughter is hopeful too) –during the children’s sermon, Jim sat with a big wrapped box, and talked to the little kids about waiting, and how hard it is– and I had this moment– a daydream– where I imagined him opening that box, and in it were the puppies that were at the holiday bazaar yesterday, and he handed each child one.
Yes, the future is an infinite succession of presents– in every sense of the word. Sometimes we have to wait for them, sometimes they show up when we least expect them– and sometimes they involve puppies, real and imagined. (And please forgive me if some days I slide a bit off the rails. Tis the season…)
