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One of my favorite quotes from the television show Doctor Who is from Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor. In the episode The Almost People the Doctor makes a phone call at a moment when the situation seems dire. Not just any call, but a phone call into the future. “But why?” asks companion Amy Pond. “Because,” declares the Doctor with Smith’s trademark ebullience, “I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”
When I chose my first (and, so far, only) tattoo I landed on this quote as the summation of who I wanted to be. I shortened it slightly; after all, I am not always the optimist. But I want to be a person who believes the improbable can happen, who dares to have an audacious hope. I combined it with the dove and olive branch, which have long held significance as signs of peace. These days peace seems like the most improbable of dreams.
I dream of putting words out into the world that shape it just a tiny bit. I dream about taking all of my far-flung hopes and improbable dreams and aiming them towards the future. This world is complicated and full of suffering, full of uncertainty, festering mistrust, words that are aimed as arrows to wound. I struggle with how to express the idea that hope is not just a gloss of positivity that we smear over the painful things in life, but a fierce, actively sustained practice.
This is my vision of hope.
Hope is the audacity to believe that what is wrong can, and will, be made right, and the perseverance to work towards that goal.
Hope is the quiet practice of restoring ourselves for that perseverance by looking for the goodness that exists right now.
Hope is the courage to look conflict square in the face, not turning our backs because it’s someone else’s problem.
Hope is communal because community sustains us.
This is the community I want to build; people who live into the joy and the pain all around us, people who refuse to give up, who resist individualism and apathy. We will anchor ourselves in goodness and fling out our audacious hopes towards the future, not knowing for certain where they will land, but knowing that they WILL land because we are creating the soil where they flourish.
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My intent is for this channel to always be free. I gave up the idea making money from writing a long time ago. I respect those who ask for payment for their work and support their right to do so, but in order for me to enjoy this I keep the pressure to produce minimal. Subscribing is simply a way for me to see who is interested in what I have to say, to build community, and to ensure that you never miss an update.
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