Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a funny thing. Some people are born with a surplus of it; some without much, if any, at all. The rest of us--the great unwashed masses--are left to slog our way through life's ups and downs sometimes with the greatest of hopes and sometimes utterly bereft of it. Such is the human condition.
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
Dreams are just hope by another name, are they not? Maybe Langston Hughes' broken-winged bird and Emily Dickinson's "thing with feathers that perches in the soul" are one in the same. Both Dickinson and Hughes knew more than their fair share of sorrows and adversity, yet both expressed a belief that hope never dies unless you let it go. Much of Hughes' poetry centered on dreams--not bright, shiny, happy dreams but on dreams unrealized or denied. His poetry was a defining element of the Civil Rights Movement in the 50's and 60's in America, inspiring playwrights like Lorraine Hansberry and many believe, one of the greatest speeches ever made: I Have A Dream, delivered by Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Even though most of Hughes' poetry is about dreams deferred, his words always carry an underlying thread of hope and optimism.
My experience is that there is, you know, surprisingly always hope.
Doctor Who,Vincent and the Doctor, written by Richard Curtis
The last few weeks have been hard. Unless you've lived through it, I really do not believe it is possible to fully understand what it is like to live in a place that has been torn apart. The mental toll is heavy. Progress seems to happen in increments so incredibly small that it is almost imperceptible. Even as I am typing this I can hear the Twitterverse saying "FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS" and the WhatAbout Crew getting ready to tell me how wrong I am to say how hard this is when there are so many people in the world living in much worse conditions.
To that I say: This is our reality. It is hard. And it certainly isn't a contest.
When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.
Theodore Roosevelt
I know two people who both finally got a new roof last week after months of fighting with their mortgage companies to release their insurance funds. And today I noticed a triplex that has a new roof and all new siding; it looks really grand. A new friend will get to sleep in her own bed tonight for the first time since the hurricane.
Things are getting better, we just have to hang in there, and listen a little closer to hear that little feathered thing sing.
XOXOXO
Julie
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