A Bit of Hope
We stand on the brink of everything collapsing.
The entire world.
It’s unraveling.
The conflict in Ukraine.
The ongoing tensions between Hamas and Israel.
Chaos.
Bedlam.
Disorder.
Everywhere.
***
***
Voltaire had a thought I appreciate:
COMPTEZ QUE LE MONDE EST UN GRAND NAUFRAGE, ET QUE LA DEVISE DES HOMMES EST, SAUVE QUI PEUT.
The translation most often is this:
LIFE IS A SHIPWRECK. SAVE YOURSELF IF YOU CAN.
DO NOT FORGET TO SING IN THE LIFEBOATS.
***
Larry is my best friend.
He insists that hope is a choice.
Larry says that he would rather choose to have hope, and at times be wrong, than choose not to have hope, and always be right.
My best friend is remarkably wise.
***
Succumbing to despair is an option.
It is.
Gloom is the easy, slippery path.
I’ve chosen otherwise.
I’ve chosen to believe that something better awaits.
I’ve chosen to live as though I can help birth a world of beloved-belovedness and beloveditude.
Hopelessness serves near instant results.
Hope is quieter. Slower.
The world might not be filled with love today.
Or even next week.
Perhaps that time will come when Annie and Emmett are raising children of their own.
Good thing I have also chosen to have the patience to wait for it.
Rushing does no good.
Instead.
Let me.
Move slower.
More lovingly.
With hope.
Practicing love.
Practicing softness.
Practicing my instrument for the lifeboat band.
***
I’m not alone in this.
Three quotes:
Langston Hughes:
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Jimi Hendrix:
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3:
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
***
Life is a shipwreck.
Let us not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
Allow me to announce open auditions: *Voltaire’s Lifeboat Voluntary Band.*
I’ve even created membership pins.
Join me?
rB