An Alternative to Hope

An Empowering Choice

Regarding HOPE— can we get past needing it in order to take action? We have no way to know if there is still hope, or any control over how much is left.

But we know what “right action” is. So do that, anyhow. We know what love is. How do we care for what we love? Do that. No matter what.

I hear it all the time--if people don't have hope, they will give up and do nothing. But how does it work to tie our actions to a thing we can't control? That we can't even gauge properly?

If I knew, for example, that we had passed the tipping point in the ecocide and were destined for early extinction, how would I act differently? Would I stop valuing the biosphere or loving this living planet?

I can't imagine that I would change my behavior at all from what it is now, when I still have hope.

Or, considering the recent coup in my county, which has essentially ended nearly 250 years of a Democratic Republic. And which has created an organic and growing resistance.

We don’t know, at this time, how bad things will get. We don’t know if all or any of our endeavors will work to take back the country.

But, at least for me, I don’t need to know. I am going to resist because I love my country and because it is right to do so.

Let's understand right action, let’s understand love, and let’s put hope off to the side. If for no other reason than it returns the locus of control back to us as individuals.

I find that to be both empowering and motivating.