To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
——Howard Zinn
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It’s easy in these times to let ourselves fall prey to our darker emotions. From both sides of the political spectrum, we revert to anger and hatred, letting those emotions color our view of our every day lives. These dark emotions begin to crowd in on our lives, preventing us from witnessing the good that exists even during troubled times.
Our better qualities should not be swayed by external forces. True compassion and empathy is not subject to politics or prejudices.
But, as I said, it’s easy to fall prey to the darkness, to simmer in a stew of anger and fear. God knows, I have.
But I can’t live that way. I won’t live that way.
I need the joy. I need to smile and laugh. I need to feel quiet in my inner world. I need to feel the beauty of our humanity.
Anger takes those things from me and I will not have that.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a submission to the events currently taking place. No, my anger remains. My will to resist and fight against those things that I see as simply wrong remains as strong as ever.
I just refuse to let darkness take over my life, to change who I am– or who I aspire to be– as a person.
And that, in its own way, is a small victory.
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The piece at the top is a new piece, a small 2″ by 6″ painting on paper called “Maintaining Hope.” It is part of the upcoming Little Gems show, opening February 3 at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY.
Redtree Times 
Fear is also a non-motivator 😦 I’m having a hard time with that one with current events.
Love your maintaining hope 🙂
“I just refuse to let darkness take over my life, to change who I am– or who I aspire to be– as a person.”
My wife has a harder time dealing with these darker times, she goes deeper into her own head and has a hard time climbing back out… When she sees the news and asks me how we will live through these dark days I reply “By living through them”.
I personally will not let them win. I will do what I must to be the person I know myself to be. I may not be a good religious man, but I am a good, spiritual and moral man… And at the end of these trying times I plan to emerge just as good, just as spiritual, and most decidedly, just as moral as I went in.
Keep painting Gary, keep writing, keep the faith, and keep your fingers crossed.
*”And at the end of these trying times I plan to emerge just as good, just as spiritual, and most decidedly, just as moral as I went in.”*
That is exactly the right way to face this. Character is destiny.
But I do understand your wife’s anxiety. It’s hard when we’re faced with a struggle for which we never bargained or even thought was a possibility in our lives. We will get through this.
Keep up the good fight, Gary.
When constant anger and anxiety, increasing fear, and a felt need to fight everyone from the media to family and friends on a daily basis take over our lives, we’re setting ourselves up for everything from adrenal exhaustion to depression. Those are physical facts.
It’s also true that when illness, family stress, or political upheaval come to call, creative energy ebbs away. I have things to do this year, and I intend to do them. For a couple of weeks, I became increasingly drawn into the chaos on social media, and I’m done with it. There are ways to pay attention to issues, and respond appropriately, without giving in to hours of he-said-she-said-they-implied.
There may be a time to shout, Aux barricades! and head out, but, for me, that time hasn’t come. If it does, I’ll be there. In the meantime, I have other things to do.