Losing and Finding Hope

After nearly nine years, Hope Magazine, created to inform and inspire readers to make a difference in their worlds will cease publication in its current form at the end of the year, according to Publisher Jon Wilson.

Readers are drawn to terrible news, Wilson said. Hope Magazine stories were not dramatic enough and were hard to read, not only because of the subject matter but because they carried with them an "inferred expectation" of action on the part of the reader. "It was not enough just to read, you then had to do something."

Why is that unsurprising?

Everyone wants to make a difference

People everywhere say, "I want to make a difference". I wait, or read on, eager to learn what differences they refer to and what their plans are, but they rarely say or offer details.

I ask my clients, "What difference?" and am often met with vagueness or ambivalence. Sometimes there is simply embarrassment because the process of values clarification in which the question arises has already established that while they claim one set of values, their behaviours show they live according to another. The difference those values indicate they really want is more - of all the things they believe will make them comfortable, secure and happy.

The same is true for me. I am confronted every day with the chasm between what I profess to value and how I actually behave. Every journey I make to buy groceries involves my personal support of major players in a system I believe is destroying the planet. Healthy living is a contradiction in terms for millions of people - one I help perpetuate by the way I choose to live. I seem to accommodate this fundamental conflict by denying it exists.

It is as though our generally broad and unfocused intention to bring about positive change to a state of affairs that is deeply troubling, strikes a major obstacle: we realise, sometimes faintly, sometimes unbearably, that the differences we want are overwhelmingly difficult or virtually impossible and perhaps we can make no difference at all. "Well, what can you do . . ?" I sigh, and immediately distract myself with some other thought or activity.

We are in serious trouble

We are plainly in trouble and we find it more convenient most of the time to delude ourselves that this is not the case. It may not be so much that as a species we are on our way to hell in a hand-basket but that we are already there. Put aside for the moment the poverty and homelessness of millions, wars-for-peace, genocide, indiscriminate terrorism, increasing social iniquities and burgeoning prison populations: we are on the cusp of another great extinction (of animal, mineral and vegetable life) in the history of this planet - the first caused entirely by one species.

Having treated the planet for so long as though its sole purpose is to satisfy the selfish desires of the predominant culture of only one species and having exploited it beyond sustainable limits, we face calamity. We behave as though we can somehow step outside of the wider system and pretend we are not part of it. Technology may not be able to help prevent the oncoming catastrophe from consuming us all. We know we are in trouble and we are not sure what to do about it.

Limited options

But it is not true to say that we do not know what we must do about it. The history of biological evolution shows very clearly that survival is not reserved for the fittest but for these organisms and species that learn to cooperate and share available resources. Humanity's self-destructive urges arise from greed and from oppression, and the former causes the latter. Sharing, in whatever form we can, more of what we already have is the most immediate way of making the difference that matters.

It is not enough to help people accommodate intolerable conditions. That would only help them go insane to match insane surroundings: there is already too much of that. Even working 12-hour days and 60 - 70 hour weeks in relative luxury is both intolerable and insane. The insanity of the wider system is visible at a glance and any direct or indirect support of it is similar madness. Each time I refuel my car I should wear a straight-jacket.

Nor for most of us, is it feasible to step outside of the system so as not to be part of it. Isolating ourselves from the system invites it to cut us out and drop us off. Outside of it, it may be impossible for us to function at all or only with extreme difficulty because it is now almost inseparable from ourselves.

What to do (and what to remember) when we don't know what to do

To remain positive in the light of our own powerless and inadequacy can sometimes be a struggle. It is tempting at times, to become despondent and immobilised. I have learned to use those times as a trigger to draw from a nutritional mix of daily practices (exercise, meditation and contemplation, good food, study) and others' distilled wisdom, including the following:

There is nothing so incapacitating and immobilising as anxiety about two things we believe cannot be changed: either the past (over which we can change our perception) or what has yet to happen. Whatever we have chosen in the past, we have free will and can make new choices.

Becoming too impatient to sit patiently and contemplatively with the pain and discomfort of "not knowing" comes a close second and accounts for a great deal of misdirected, headless-chicken activity.

Meditate: You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not event wait, just learn to become
quiet, and still, and solitary.
(Franz Kafka)

There is nothing as poisonously destructive of the human spirit and hopefulness as negativity and despondency, especially when passed amongst others like a heavy-duty virus.

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal in life is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that they've been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey - delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally with beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank God for letting you have the ride."
(Gordon B Hinckley)

There are times when we need to remind ourselves that total commitment to ideas or to any good intentions -a relationship, project, profession or career, a team or an organisation - is no guarantee of success. Nor is the absence of certain success reason for not committing. We may or may not be able to do great things but we can do small things in a great way. We find release and redemption from the negative sides of our nature through goodwill, good work and service.

"Native peoples teach that the ultimate norm for morality is the impact our choices have on persons living seven generations from now. If the results appear good for them, then our choices are moral ones; if not, they are immoral."
(Arthur L Costa and Bena Kallick in "Habits of Mind")

We can sometimes spend so much time concerning ourselves with doors that have closed or may not open that we don't see those that are already open and beckoning. We may need to find the courage to do what we can and begin our dreams, believing that "boldness has genius, power and magic in it". As W H Murray famously pointed out -

" . . . The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way . . . "

It may be useful to challenge your own unwillingness to change: When we begin change by changing ourselves, many other things become possible.

"Most people don't want to change. And most of those who say that they do, don't want to really. They just want to be helped to feel happier about staying exactly as they are, to become happier neurotics."
(Sheldon Kopp)

Think globally. Act locally. Start with ourselves.

It is not only corporations who carry the responsibility for pollution. Insofar as we tell them, "Produce all you want! We'll buy whatever you make," the rest of us are responsible too.
(Sri Eknath Easwaran)

We need not do everything. We need not stop doing all that we do. Simple acts such as re-using fabric bags for groceries can make a difference. We may need to find different ways of finding fulfilment, perhaps by giving support to the myriad of organisations which already work in support of feeding, housing and educating those with few materials goods. Think globally. Act locally. Start with yourself. Give your time, money, skills. Stuff envelopes. Lick stamps.

"An attitude to life which seeks fulfilment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth - in short, materialism - does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited."
(E.F. Schumacher)

Recognise the power of altering our own attitudes, and of the behaviours we model for others. Sri Eknath Easwaran again:

"We can all throw our full weight behind peaceful, effective programs for eliminating the situations from which violence arises. But just as importantly, we need to do everything we can to remove every trace of hostility in ourselves. The violence that is flaring up on our streets and in many corners of the world is the inevitable expression of the hostility in our hearts. Hostility is like an infectious disease. Whenever we indulge in a violent act or even in hostile words, we are passing this disease on to those around us. When we quarrel at home, it is not just a domestic problem; we are contributing to turmoil everywhere.

"Patanjali, a teacher of meditation in ancient India, wrote that in the presence of a man or woman in whom all hostility has died, others cannot be hostile. In the presence of a man or woman in whom all fear has died, no one can be afraid. This is the power released in true non-violence. When all hostility had died in our hearts, we become a profound force for peace."

Be kind. Be kind. Be kind.

© Copyright 2002 - 2007 Tom Watkins Group. All rights reserved.

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