Where There Is Hope

Where There Is Hope

I tend to be a person of hope and joy. However, I have had to work hard to hold to this in the midst of the anxiety, divisions, and hostilities in our country and the trauma so many of us experience in these days before this election. It hurts my heart to hear crude, antagonistic, hurtful, egocentric language and to know it is coming from a person with few of the values I hold, who hopes to lead us.

To manage my depression these weeks, I have been trying to read mostly headlines about the election, and then to read more thoroughly the important news of the world, and to watch PBS Newshour to get the information that I need. Even what I parse out is mostly unsettling.

But then, there are people I know who are gentle and wise, there is the beauty all around us, there is prayer, and there is the reminder that God, the Ground of All Being, is beneath all this, mysteriously infusing any destruction and anxiety with love and hope. So, probably for all of us, this is “deep breath” time.

As I lay awake last night and watched the clock click, I thought of a dream I’ll never forget that I had of Trump in 2015, right after my college 50th reunion and sometime after his golden escalator production.

I dreamed that I was with my classmates on the lawn of the campus beneath the elm trees at a luncheon, as we had recently done. Trump showed up, not as a speaker, just wandering around. People began shouting insults at him. After a bit, I stood up, looked him in the eye and said, “Mr. Trump, I shall pray for you.” I’ve done a lot of praying for him since then. At first, I had hoped he might find some redemption, some healing in his broken soul. Now, I know that won’t happen in this lifetime. So, I am praying that he will take defeat without injuring too many people, or if he should win, that he will find good people to have around him, people with some wisdom and discretion. I suspect that won’t happen either. A win for him could be devastating for the global peoples and lands as well as for those we call brothers and sisters in this country.

I am trying to turn my anxiety to prayer and hope, to surround myself with people I trust, and openly to give my unique gifts to the world. I hope you will as well, for this is a difficult time.