{"id":5335,"date":"2016-11-25T17:06:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T22:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5335"},"modified":"2016-11-25T17:06:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T22:06:13","slug":"hope-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5335","title":{"rendered":"Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism.\u00a0 It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
\n\u2014 V\u00e1clav Havel, Disturbing the Peace<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m glad I arrived at that understanding yesterday: that the earth has tremendous powers of regeneration, that the universe is not random, that the arc of evolution bends toward consciousness, compassion and justice.\u00a0 These are things I know<\/strong>.\u00a0 They are like bedrock, and stop me when I start to slide down.\u00a0 The thing that\u2019s missing is any sense that I am loved for myself.<\/p>\n

To have something to stand on, to have something to lean against.\u00a0 Even with that, I still feel bereft of human companionship which is the wound of trauma in infancy. \u00a0At least I don\u2019t feel like I am going to slide down into major depression.\u00a0 I do feel like I can hold on to my values and my vision, through whatever disasters are coming in the future.\u00a0 I wish I could say with Etty<\/a> that life is beautiful.\u00a0 I can still occasionally, or in tiny flashes, see the beauty of nature, and I know it\u2019s there even when I can\u2019t enjoy it. \u00a0The ability to enjoy is destroyed by depressive brain chemistry, appreciation can be done by will. \u00a0I know that life is meaningful because the universe is not random.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how my life is meaningful, but I know that it is in that huge context.<\/p>\n

So that is my certainty that \u201cthings make sense.\u201d\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean that I expect that everything\u2019s going to be all right, especially for myself.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I can still take a stand for the things I value \u2014 peace, love, justice, mercy, truth, hope \u2014 and hold my vision for my country (courtesy of Bernie<\/a>) where everyone has medical coverage as a right, there is paid medical and family leave, colleges and universities are tuition free.\u00a0 We can lead the world in transforming our energy system and combating climate change, break up the large financial institutions, and demand that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes.<\/p>\n

I do not expect this to come true in my lifetime.\u00a0 I do think that the unsustainable way we are living will soon collapse, and I don\u2019t know how many of us will survive.\u00a0 I doubt very much that I will.\u00a0 I\u2019m 74 years old, not terribly robust, and dependent on medication.\u00a0 I do know that somewhere in the future, people will learn how to live in a way that works for all, that we will understand that the earth is sacred, and treat her\u00a0that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism.\u00a0 It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” \u2014 V\u00e1clav Havel, Disturbing the Peace I\u2019m … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-depression","category-present-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}