Hope: day 8

As I've been pondering the idea of Hope, and the two ways I mentioned of looking at it, I have found that I decidedly prefer one to the other. The concept of Hope for the future is a really good thing. People who don't have it are not Hopeful people. But, in my case, hope for the future could actually get me into trouble. See, I've got a career goal that has almost become an obsession at times. I have very recently come to the point where I might be okay with it if that never happens. That hope has been very easily replaced by hope for my daughter's future. That is also a good thing, and I sincerely hope that all parents have hope for their kids. But take that too far, and I'll be living vicariously. We've all seen enough bad TV to know that, not only does that mean therapy for the kid, but it never makes for pretty parents.

And so I've found myself exploring the idea of Hope within the tragedy of the world. Although Hope for the Future is easier and more personal, Hope for the World is more Present. Living in the Present Moment is another Buddhist concept and is closely tied to Mindfulness. While Hope for the Future is good and necessary in order to set goals and make plans and not make stupid decisions, Hope for the World means I need to know what's going on in the world NOW.

I have never known what's going on in the world. Even when watching the news was required for social studies classes, I was never really interested. I now find that it has less to do with the actual news and more to do with the crap of media presentation (that is not a political statement!). I find I'm very interested when it comes to the personal stories of normal people.

For example, a radio station I listen to often carries a national show called the Satellite Sisters. One of these women recently went to a conference in Africa. I'm at work when this show is on, and so everything I hear, I only hear half. But I was fascinated by Liz's experiences and the things she heard and saw (besides Bono, who was also at the conference, and had a cheese omelet for breakfast). I strongly admire people who have strong ties to a particular cause, especially one as vast as the many crises in Africa.

A small note about Africa: I grew up Baptist, to very mission-minded parents (I even went on a mission trip to Europe -- that's light on the "mission" and heavy on the "trip to Europe"). In my world, missionaries came to our church to tell us about Africa -- jungles full of pagan tribes with horrible rituals and no English. To go to Africa meant learning how to learn a brand new language so as to translate the Bible into it, while also teaching English and Western culture. It meant traveling for days, away from all semblance of technology and culture. And mostly, what I learned on Mission Night at church is that showing too much interest in Africa will increase your chances of God "calling" you to live there forever, in the jungle.

My point here is that, in the midst of genocide and AIDS, there are some glimmers of Hope in Africa. They are small, but they are not insignificant. I want to be part of that hope. I want to hear about the horrendous events and circumstances, so that I can recognize Hope when I see it in such despair. And the part I now need to figure out is how to do that. Can I actually handle reading pages and pages of African horror online; and, more importantly, will it be accurate? And when it touches me so much that I want to give Hope to these people, will I know what to do? Will I want to sell my car to provide medication to people? How will my husband deal with that? Something I didn't count on with this month's topic is how to balance Hope with Reality. That's clearer in the Hope for the Future view; more complex with Hope for the World. Well, I've still got 22 days to think about that.