I feel like I have been around too much negativity lately (especially about budgets and things) and it’s rubbing off on me to the point I actually said something pessimistic yesterday(which is completely out of character). I guess my answer is to write about hope and to reach out to the people who seem ready to give up. I started this blog a while a go when someone used the phrase, “this is the last…” when we both knew they didn’t really meant it:
The “Final Frontier,” which is only movie five of the now 10 or 11 movies, or the “Last Crusade” which wasn’t last (yes I understand that the writers were clever in their word choice and that neither meant it had to be the last movie); we use the words final and last so often without knowing and without even really wanting them to be true. This is the last time I am doing this, this is the last time I will see you, this is the last time… how many times does Brett Favre have to retire only to come back and play as good or better than before until we understand that there is always a chance and rarely is something actually final. I realize that sometimes we really do have to let go of things and move on and the release can even be worth celebrating, but rarely if ever should we cut ourselves off from the possibilities of “what if” when we really don’t want last to be last or final to be final.
Perhaps we just need more hope. Hope that the impossible can happen. Hope that there will be a next time, or hope that an end can mean new beginnings in a different way. Hope that what you want, that what was good, wasn’t just some fantasy, but was real and can be again. Hope that the joy you seek really is available if you are willing to keep seeking it. Hope that in every challenge we face we can be made stronger and the rewards that much more sweet for the trial we had to endure to get them.
We live in a time when governments and media seem to follow Machiavelli’s advice using fear to influence the populace. Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” uses the term, “fright facts” in his parody of all the unsubstantiated scare tactics that seem to be influencing so many people and he’s right to poke fun at it, but it’s only funny because it’s true and people are buying it. It is sad to me that people are more influenced by fear than they are by hope. When Obama ran on a platform of “hope” it seemed people all over the world really wanted to hope, but it doesn’t take long for people to loose it and to fall back on skepticism and fear. We have a choice; we can live in fear, or we can live in hope. In fear we can do nothing, just hide. In hope we must be intentional and willing to do what is necessary even it’s hard. We need more hopeful people.
Tripping the Light Fantastic 