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Hope is the Thing with Feathers: Time to Fly Into Action

November 20, 2024

I’m Fine by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Sai displayed at Burning Man 2024

“I’m fine.” Yeah, right. I’m as fine as this sculpture “I’m Fine” by Ukrainian artist Oleksiy Sai made up of shot up and mangled signs from the war that Russia is engaging in against Ukraine (bikes in front for scale).  Current mood:

Art by Michael Mahaffey

In my search for hope, as I search for a way to dig myself out of this depression, I turn to art and authors like historian Heather Cox Richardson who reminds me that more people voted for someone else than voted for him instead of HER. And Rebecca Solnit; more from her below. And Robin Wall Kimmerer. And Emily Dickinson; see below. And Dianne Bennet; see below. And Wendell Berry; see below. And Octavia Butler who said  “The very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope.” And Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders; read my Jungian analysis here.

“Hope” by Dianne Bennett– I purchased this from her in October 2024

“Hope” is the thing with feathers says Emily Dickinson:  

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
 
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
 
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

I turn to my community for friends offering comfort. And action:

Resist: human banner Ventura February 2017

I organized this human banner with help from my friends. We also made a heart, and a line in the sand; read more about it here.

This is the message: resist. But it is hard to resist without hope. 

How do you get to hope? How do you get to a place where you can look ahead? I write this on the birthday of an activist poet friend who gave up hope– and jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge to his death.  I honor him and celebrate his many accomplishments with this call to action– to not give up, but to find “The Peace of Wild Things.”

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Nature helps me feel connected to myself and to our planet — the people, plants, and animals that all coexist. After the election, journalist, climate activist, art historian, and feminist Rebecca Solnit offered up her book  Hope in the Dark for free as a download through her publisher, and on her twitter feed she has pinned a download of a chapter her climate anthology Not Too Late that provides “practical answers to the questions about how to get involved so many ask. So we’re adding this chapter to the book that’s also a free download here. Please share! .” 

 

Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark

 

“If you’re worried that it’s too late to do anything about climate change and we should all just give up, I have great news for you: that day is not coming in your lifetime. As long as you have breath in your body, you will have work to do,” advises Mary Annaïse Heglar. 

Check out: INDIVISIBLE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY ON THE BRINK



Hope = action

Whatever the problem is you are focused on solving, and you have breath in your body, you have work to do, actions to take, no matter where you are.

Berrigan

So let’s get to it! 

 

 

 

 

 


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