December 2024
“Four Wings of the Transformative Justice Butterfly” by Olly Costello
Dear friends,
After a fitful night of tossing and turning, I woke up early on November 6th and my phone quickly delivered a gut punch. It was hard to fully absorb in that moment, before the sun rose, the details of what this would mean for the people, communities, and institutions I care about. But I felt a sadness and numbness that lingered as I stepped outside into a climate-change-induced warm November day in Michigan. The sunbeams felt like a salve. But, they were also a harsh reminder of the ongoing planetary harm, and other harms, that would soon intensify. As the days have gone on this month, the numbness has worn off, but the sadness remains. I have begun to intellectually comprehend and (try to) plan for what is likely to come. As harmful policy proposals and nominations populate my screens, it can be hard to hold onto hope.
I’m grateful to my friend who recommended the book by Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark, which I have been plodding through over the past week or two. The book was originally published after George Bush won his second-term as president (the first presidential election I could vote in and a political context that feels like ancient history). Solnit reminds us—both through her actual words and the resonance of her ideas two decades later—that history can inspire us in moments of despair:
“Together we are very powerful, and we have a seldom-told, seldom-remembered history of victories and transformations that can give us confidence that yes, we can change the world because we have many times before. You row forward looking back, and telling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future. We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war change of our victories. The past is set in daylight, and it can become the torch we can carry into the night that is the future.”
Solnit brings to light moments in the past where the future seemed hopeless because of the vast power amassed by “those who have the guns and the money and who seem invisible in their determination to hold onto it.” But, that power “again and again proved vulnerable to moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience.” She gives historical examples like the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the civil rights movement in the U.S. that can be the torch that helps guide us forward towards a better world. As I read Solnit’s words, I was struck by the examples of people who have held onto hope and acted to build a better world despite being up against powerful forces. It hit me that despair and hopelessness is exactly what powerful forces want—and are actively cultivating—amongst those who might push to make a better world.
I am trying to cultivate hope to help gird me for what’s to come and sustain me for my work to make a better world possible. I draw hope from reading books like Solnit’s. I draw hope from hearing from readers of this newsletter about how they are building communities of support. And I draw hope knowing that a better world is possible through our collective power to build it together.
Take care and hold onto the hope,
Paul
P.S. Hope in the Dark is currently available on discount as an ebook from Haymarket Books, along with many other books that may help us understand this moment. Find them by googling “Haymarket Ten Ebooks for Getting Free.”
Today’s Key Point:
We must hold onto hope and can look to the past to guide and inspire us.
Today’s Reflection Questions:
What are a few reasons to be hopeful right now?
What historical movements for change inspire you?
Who are the people in your life who give you hope that a better world is possible?
How can cultivating hope be an important action in your quest to build a better world?
What are three specific things you can do each week to cultivate and hold onto hope?
Quote of the Month:
“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.” - Wangarĩ Maathai
Inspired reading/listening/viewing:
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
Practical Radicals podcast, especially the episodes “Collective Care in the AIDS Crisis” and Momentum with Mae Boeve of 350.org”
“‘Hope is an embrace of the unknown’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times” in The Guardian
“The Right Wants Us to Submit to Nihilism. Here Is Where I’m Searching for Hope.” by Lewis Raven Wallace in Truthout
“Hope Is a Practice and a Discipline: Building a Path to a Counterculture of Care.” by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes