There is Always Room for Hope

We can grieve that our day contains so much pain and fear and insecurity and loss. And at the same time, we can draw comfort from the living examples of people around us even now wherever we are, making lives and the world a bit better. And that’s something worth celebrating.

I remember attending a climate change conference where thousands of activists came together to advocate for government policies geared around addressing our climate change crisis. That was about ten years ago but I still remember one of the speakers being quite blunt in saying that basically we’re already doomed but we might as well keep fighting.

I know I’m an external optimist but part of the reason why I remain quite hopeful with not just climate change but other very perplexing dilemmas that we are facing today from COVID-19 to armed conflicts, to the heart-breaking refugee crisis, and so on. One thing that I cling to is the fact that although our species might be the only one capable or seemingly at times determined to destroy our world in any number of ways, we are also the only species with so many amazing individuals dedicating their heart and effort to helping solve those problems.

This evidence can be as simply seen as looking at a well-stocked bird feeder. Why do we spend our valuable time and money helping birds’ lives a bit easier? And for that matter, why do millions of our fellow humans donate and work towards restoring damage done to ecosystems or toward helping people we don’t know and will never meet live a bit easier lives in our own countries as well as in countries all over the world.

I don’t fault the news for reporting on mostly problematic issues. If we don’t know about problems, it makes it much harder to ever solve them. But how much we need some good news too. What a joy it is to see children laughing in the city park, hearing about endeavors to help houseless individuals make steps toward safe and stable homes, seeing neighbors care for each other, and experiencing great art still being created and played and shared even though there are some dark components tied to living in our day.

We can grieve that our day contains so much pain and fear and insecurity and loss. And at the same time, we can draw comfort from the living examples of people around us even now wherever we are, making lives and the world a bit better. And that’s something worth celebrating.