Stories of radical hope from a divided world
Who stands firm? Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to …
They taught me how important the food we eat is, how sacred the coming together to enjoy the fruits of earth and labour really is
Why hope? Now more than ever before is hope useful, relevant, and necessary. We hope because we still believe that there is some good worth fighting for. We hope, because it is what a healthy human does. We hope because we still can.
Many in Europe who still remember the experience of living under totalitarian regimes, but also the rest of us who have had the good fortune to experience nothing but post-WWII and post-Cold War peace, security and prosperity, may well wonder at the collapse of the events industry, the closure of arts venues and the Balkanisation …
Continue reading "Inescapable Journeys: On Integrating the Dual and the Non-Dual"
Pari Center, 16 May 2021 Talk on the nature of hope and its place in the human experience. References to Viktor Frankl, Gabriel Marcel, Albert Camus, Emily Dickinson, Pema Chödrön and Thanissaro Bikkhu. Talk was delivered via Zoom to an audience of around forty people. Below a PDF with the talk notes and a bibliography. …
Continue reading "Hope and Delusion: critical storytelling for difficult times"
A tentative definition of hope as a feeling for what is worth living for (discernment) and the determination to live it (committed choice), as distinct from optimism, which is defined as an uncritical faith in the future
Hope is the last piece of the human puzzle that must be removed for the work of dehumanisation to be complete. Some would call it survival instinct, but there is intelligence in it, too. Hope knows that things can change, that in fact they are bound to change, no matter how insurmountable they may seem.
I want to raise a provocative question: is having hope helpful?
But change, as we know, occurs even when there is no hope left.
We don't have to go on repeating the same negative behaviour on an international scale that we are practicing today. We can change. Graham Hancock (talk in South Africa, 2011) If ever there was any doubt about the reality of that possibility, this book will dispel it. David Boyd guides us almost Virgil-like through the …
Continue reading "Review: The Rights of Nature by David R. Boyd"
Record of Hope 