It’s getting harder and harder to hold onto hope, because…
The bad news is so robust.
And the list of trouble is so long. For example…
The melting of the polar ice, faster than even many of the more pessimistic scientists predicted.
The crazy weather patterns—record droughts and floods.
The coming shortage of food supplies.
The mass migrations that will be starting in the not-too-distant future.
The powerful corporations using all of their resources to push for, to enforce our continued dependence on fossil fuels.
My country, the US, which just spent the past 5 years doing all Trump all the time, while he took us, and the world, racing backwards.
Tens of millions of people living in an alternative reality, eager to fight against anything that people who are crazed enough to fight against measures to
A species, scared and divided and bristling with terrible weapons.
And there’s so much more.
Meanwhile…
The good news is so anemic.
For example…
Corporate leaders giving happy speeches that are more greenwashing than a genuine commitment to change.
The rise of alternative energy, cheering in that it’s happening, depressing in that it’s more decorative than substantial.
The Paris Climate Accord, a good idea, except it’s not nearly radical enough. And the follow through by signatories is lukewarm.
To lose hope about us and our future is…
A remarkably painful experience.
And what do we do with that pain?
What’s the easiest thing? Well, when hope disappears on you…
Despair is waiting right there.
And it’s…
Waiting to take you down.
Despair of course has got a bad rap. People think of it as a depressing thing, an empty thing, so who would want it?
But the truth is that…
Lots of people look to despair for rescue.
They turn to it…
As if it’s a pain killer.
And it is, it actually is. And it is because…
It’s a you-killer.
Which means…
It shuts down your pain by shutting you down.
It diminishes you. It makes you care less, be less, and therefore feel less.
And so it goes…
Despair seduces you, sucks you in, and submerges you.
You give in, you give up on yourself, and then you disappear into despair. You forget who you are. You forget what’s deepest in your heart. You habituate. You stop looking for an exit because you no longer believe there is one.
The pain that comes with the death of hope is terrible, but…
The price despair makes you pay to shut down that pain is also terrible.
And what about your relationships? As you diminish those diminish. And once despair has its full and final grip on you, it will cut the heart out of your relationships.
Which would be very painful. Except despair is a pain killer. So wants you to keep going through the motions. It wants you to pretend that you still have love in your life even though you don’t, not really. It doesn’t want you to feel the loss.
And there we have it, the treachery of despair…
It promises to help you.
But then…
It hurts you and hurts you and hurts you.
And it doesn’t know how to stop.
Fortunately, though, when hope disappears, despair is not the only game in town.