[SustainableTompkins] On Why we hope

[Micheal Wheeler]

James Kunstler says it slightly differently in
http://www.orionmagazine.org/pages/om/07-1om/Kunstler.html

It's a daunting agenda, all right. And some of you are probably
wondering how you are supposed to remain hopeful in the face of these
enormous tasks. Here's the plain truth, folks: Hope is not a consumer
product. You have to generate your own hope. You do that by
demonstrating to yourself that you are brave enough to face reality
and competent enough to deal with the circumstances that it presents.
How we will manage to uphold a decent society in the face of
extraordinary change will depend on our creativity, our generosity,
and our kindness, and I am confident that we can find these resources
within our own hearts, and collectively in our communities.

JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER is the author of The Long Emergency and The
Geography of Nowhere


On 2/4/07, Steve Paisley <poppin8 at clarityconnect.com> wrote:
>
> WHY WE HOPE
>
>       In the face an overwhelming despair about global warming, peak
> oil, overpopulation, and fears of resulting war and terror and
> disease....
> What basis do we have for hope?
>
>       We hope because we must, because a life lived wholly in despair
> is too painful to be borne.  Because that is the kind of beings that
> we are.
>
>       It is possible that we may yet be saved by wind farms or
> biomass or cold fusion, or by permaculture, or natural capitalism, or
> social democracy, or simple human decency.  In the end, none of these
> things, nor even all of them together, can provide a solid basis for
> our hope.
>
>       The only reliable hope is one that is based on nothing but
> itself, that bootstraps itself into existence, that lives in us
> because we need it to.
>
>       The many religions of the world know this kind of hope well--
> they call it faith when it is applied in a religious context.  I do
> not have faith that everything will be OK, I know well that it may
> not--but I do have hope.  This kind of hope is the birthright of us all.
>
>       I choose to hope because I know that I must, if I am to keep my
> sanity.  And that thought gives me hope.
>
> Steve Paisley
> poppin8 at clarityconnect.com
>
> (I have been increasingly depressed over the past months about these
> seemingly intractable global issues.  This morning, I had a small
> epiphany, certainly not original with me, but one that I wanted to
> share.)
>
>
>