On Two Books and Hope
“Hope is what gets us out of bed in the morning and colors our lives with the courage to face the new day.”
–Elaine Thomas I recently had the opportunity to read two books that are both sources of great hope. First, I was sent an advance copy of Elaine Thomas’s forthcoming Vol. 3 of “Stories I’ve Been Told,” which will be released soon. I am privileged to have had lunch with Elaine several times over the past summer, and she graciously asked for my views on the book.
While I had read virtually every one of the profiles of rural Texans included in the book, as they were published in this newspaper individually over the past several years, and appreciated the courage, grit, work ethic, or heroism of the subjects in each case (and for some of them more than one or two of those traits), it was only in reading these one after another, over about three or four days, that their collective impact was revealed: this is truly a book of HOPE!
Not one of these subjects Elaine writes profiles of has the slightest degree of puffedup self-importance; instead, each was brought up modestly (no one raised in a palace or by wildly wealthy parents). Each one faced challenges at some point or other; each one demonstrated courage and resourcefulness, traits few of them ever knew they had! Their normal upbringing was actually extraordinary, giving them the work ethic, the values, the determination to do their best and power through the problems life presents to us.
For me, reading these all at once meant that I could see the human determination and courage that we ALL have within us, whether we realize it or not. I vaguely recall telling a class of students at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, as the New York World Trade Towers were on fire and soon to fall, that human beings who are under attack find that they have more strength of heart and mind and body than they realize before they are put to the test, and that we would all face the rest of that day only by calling on that strength, both as individuals and as a nation.
I may have said that mostly with hope rather than conviction, but it turned out to be true. We did find strength to get through that time (and still do, as rescuers that day still suffer from their injuries, as veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq wars endure with their injuries, as survivors of those killed in the attack or the conflicts afterwards continue grieving their losses), not without hurt and deep sorrow and a sense of outrage at being attacked, but we get through it nevertheless, just as Ms. Thomas’s subjects did in the challenges they faced in earlier times.
The second book I read recently is actually titled “The Book of Hope.” Co-authored by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams (with Mr. Abrams interviewing the famous chimpanzee researcher and reporting their conversations), the book focuses on Goodall’s hopes for the future of Earth, even though disasters made worse by climate change are occurring throughout the globe. Dr. Goodall is famous for her pioneering work in determining that animals do use tools, but her work now (as she approaches age 90) is focused on trying to save her beloved chimpanzees and other endangered primates from extinction by defending their habitat, which means she is trying to influence people as individuals as well as corporations and governments to take climate change seriously and work to moderate or reverse it rather than exacerbate it, for the good of the entire Earth ecosystem.
Readers, you have read my thoughts in previous messages, and you know I am someone who tries to encourage all of us to respect and support one another through kindness and faithfulness to God’s Golden Rule. Maybe you have dismissed me as a foolish optimist, and perhaps I am. But I think Dr. Goodall is onto something when she distinguishes between just optimism and genuine hope. An optimist may be someone who believes chance or Fate will bring an outcome favorable to them; someone who hopes, however, is ready to act, to do things that lead to the outcome, or that help to bring it about, rather than being a passive observer.
I often tell people, when I wish something will come about, that “we live in hope.” Now I know that Jane Goodall lives her life that way too every day, but it means we must WORK for what we hope for. So I will need to modify my statement to “we live and work in hope.” That’s how Elaine Thomas’s interview subjects lived their lives: hopeful and actively working to bring that hope to fruition. We can indeed accomplish much, even those of us who don’t believe we have it in us. We WILL get through this climate challenge.
Jane Goodall and I may not live to see the result of the work that many are undertaking to help our Earth “weather” this looming crisis, but many of you will. So live and work in hope, dear readers. And as Jane Goodall’s followers shout out at the end of her presentations, “Together we CAN! Together we WILL!”