Hope
I find Chris Hedges' latest column compelling. I believe the clarity it contains is a necessary piece of the path forward. Yet I also believe there are deep reasons for hope, for a positive, even joyful approach to living.
Quite a number of years ago now, I first encountered the idea that paradox and apparent contradictions are teachers of the deepest truths and are the richest sources of prolific insight. The now classic example of quantum mechanics flowing from the apparent contradiction of “light is a particle” and “light is a wave” instructs us constantly to not let go of either horn presented by a dilemma. And it is in this spirit that the column by Hedges and the perspective of hope and optimism can be brought into a deep harmony.
In fact, Proverbs 3 exhorts us to grasp both horns of that dilemma: “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart”. This is the point at which many fail, for they choose either mercy or truth or some random mixture of both. But the living path is a compelling resolution, a deep enlightenment characterized by both of these usually contradicting threads. Here we find that the hope flowing from mercy can survive and even thrive without having to hide from the light of truth.
What Chris says is true. Our pride and arrogance has brought to us a time of peril and danger. It is also true that the goodness of God exhibited constantly in the diverse riches of the universe is still open to us. Beauty and inspiration, whether in the form of a human, or quiet meadow, or cloud drifting above, or poetic utterance, or musical composition, or mathematical insight are as beautiful and inspiring as ever.
“Peace, be still” is a promise of beauty, wherever, whenever. In this moment, trust opens to us the beauty of heaven. For heaven is here, in the certainty that mercy and truth carry in them the inevitable and complete demise of all cruelty and fear. Heaven is here in the rich abundance of a universe filled with unending discovery. Heaven is here in the creative flow that fills us with delight and inspires us to fight for freedom, no matter the cost.
And trust enables us to dwell there. In the midst of battle, the concrete reality of a present heaven carries us forward triumphantly.
This is hope.