Clicking on the photo above will take you to author Rebecca Solnit's website. I haven't read her books, so unlike lots of my author mentions, I'm not sharing a book review. Instead, I'm writing today's post in response to a short quotation of hers that I heard on a podcast. Here it is:
“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch; it’s an axe you break down doors with...To hope is to give yourself a future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”
If you're not saying "Holy guacamole!" to yourself right now, maybe go back and read it again.
I love the dichotomy she poses between those who do nothing to help their lives get better, assuming that the universe will either deliver great things or let us down, and those who make the great things happen. I don't believe in the binary of the message, but thinking about the poles of this continuum seems a super useful lens through which to understand how to live a good life.
If we assume that chance is beyond our control, we will miss out on opportunities and delights. If we, instead, know that wonder exists in the world, and it's our job and joy to find it, even if we can't immediately see the path to get there, then we're more likely to be able to make our experiences what we want them to be.
Let's all make a commitment to activate our hopes this week, creating ways to get from here to where we want to be. There's certainly nothing wrong with buying a lottery ticket (except how much it shows about a lack of understanding of probability), but that can't be the only way we push for better luck.
Share your plans for activating hope in the comments.
Solnit’s “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster” 2009, is a core basic that those concerned about crises or disaster, ought to read. Several of her other books are well worth reading, but read Paradise Built in Hell soon, before the electricity goes out when you posstponed your essential reading and GoBag collection.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll add it to my (very long) TBR.
Reminders on perspective are eternally valuable.
Agreed — I need them over and over!
Great explanation of hope. Thanks Carita.
And thanks Daniel for recommending “A Paradise Built in Hell”. Solnit made up the term “mansplaining” in her short book Men Explain Things to Me (2014). It’s a perfect read for high school seniors . I’m sending you a copy.
Dear Paul, It’s great to hear from you. I didn’t know Solnit made up that useful term. Maybe I can work essays from it into a Senior English elective — or get them to declare it the all-school summer read!