She has decided to replace Hope, which she feels is disempowering, with Faith, which is empowering. Sarah Lyons: "I think it’s time we give up on simply hoping, and find something worth putting our faith into building. Hope is “what if”, faith, on the other hand is “even if.”
I have leaned on the idea of Hope myself, but I get what she is onto here. Hope is sort just a vague cloud, that you want to surround & engulf you, but Faith is sort of something you have work for and towards.
And lately, the world, and current events seem to be loads of hopelessness...
I actually fall back on my own phrase: "You Must Believe." I even wrote a song with that title. Believing actively, and putting it to work. Now, of course, "what to believe," is critical. Believing is a tool, like any other, what you choose to believe can open the world or totally close it. Create or destroy? Good or Evil?
What do I believe in with all my heart & soul? The creative process. Working at it, doing it, being it, embodying it, as often as possible.
So, yeah, believe in simple, humble things like: practice, discipline, work, a better day, a better way, trying things, health & good cheer. And maybe believe in some complicated things like evolution & long-form improvisation.
I was gonna write about Sarah Lyons post, but then I came across this post & commentary from Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns & Money, and I thought this is it, everything in a nutshell, the reason why hopelessness is rampant here in the USA, and we all feel like we are failing & flailing, no getting around it, we are under the thumb of a real-life, world-class turbo-charged Gollum. We are fucking cursed and the only way to banish it? Well, actually, Death, "... it will end when he dies."
We are in uncharted waters.
. . . commenter Richard Roland has achieved Zen-like clarity:
