Monday, January 08, 2007

Resistance to Blogging

I’ve read that blogging is supposed to be a way to get real and lay it all on the line. Today I’m noticing that I have great resistance to daily blogging. I just don’t have any wish or desire to share my mundane thoughts with the world. They’re not interesting to me … how could they be to the world? And it seems like so much work to keep coming up with something to say, especially something fresh and interesting, day after day. Oh well … so I don’t blog every day. I can’t imagine that anyone cares one way or the other. Be that as it may, here’s what I have to say today:

One theme that seems to be cropping up lately concerns the idea of hope. It has been suggested that hope leads to complacency; that it is only when we abandon hope that we take action in the now. From this perspective, hope is seen as being projected into the future, and that somehow this projection will keep us from acting in the present.

I maintain that to be hopeless, which means “without hope, despairing,” takes away any context for action. A suicide is a hopeless, despairing act of utter finality, a vote that things will not be getting better. If I were terminally ill, I’d want to check out with some dignity at a time of my choosing. Watching my father going through his incredibly long, tortuous journey to death is not something I would wish on anyone. (Well, maybe Bush or Cheney or Rumsfield – no, just kidding. Not even them.)

To have a child is one of the greatest votes of hope I know of. I don’t think having a child has anything to do with complacency. As far as I know, people lost in despair do not have children. We must become fully present in the moment is to see the beauty and perfection of the now. Yet, to open our hearts fully is to experience the anguish of knowing that the horrible reality of war, famine, disease and torture doesn’t have to be this way, that, at some deep level, all of our experiences are a choice. Without choice, we’re victims, puppets going through the motions, harnessed to our DNA like mules to a wagon. I choose to hold out hope for a brighter future for our world. That’s why I’m so passionate about creating a world where everyone feels safe, loved and celebrated. How about you?

No comments: