Practicing Hope

Many years ago a peace activist priest, Daniel Berrigan, was asked how he stayed hopeful in the midst of ongoing wars and violence all around him. He thought for a moment and replied: “I stay hopeful by doing hopeful things.” I’ve thought of him a lot this week as our campus continues to absorb pain and shock, disbelief and horror. In one day alone we reflected on and remembered a variety of tragedies.

At noon on Tuesday we gathered for a remembrance vigil to honor those who died as well as those who survived the massacre at Virginia Tech six years ago, the school shootings at Newtown, CT, and the recent bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon. Tuesday night almost 100 people gathered to watch part of a documentary about the tragedy of human trafficking and the sex slavery trade which occurs not only in far off places but in our own state and our own country. As if all that wasn’t enough, I checked the internet news before going to bed and read reports that a U.S. warplane had mistakenly bombed a wedding party in Afghanistan and at least 30 civilians had been killed, ten times the number of victims from the Boston attack. It’s enough to want to crawl under the covers and not come out for a long time.

Feeling hopeless and helpless in the face of so much heartbreak is natural, normal, and very much to be expected. Visiting those emotions for a time is one thing. However, staying only with those emotions can numb our spirits and harden our hearts. And so we get out of bed with a resolve to resist the temptation to become cynical and despairing and instead make a conscious choice to remain optimistic and hopeful in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

How have people been practicing hope in these last days? Organizers of this week’s “Break the Chains – End Human Slavery” campaign offer 27 practical suggestions to make a difference. http://www.lynchburg.edu/sites/default/files/documents/break-the-chains.pdf.
Local runners have been staging impromptu solidarity walks/runs to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Some of us will be meeting at Presbyterian Homes and Family Services at 5 p.m. today for a 2.62 run/walk and being together will bring us strength. On Saturday, LC athletes from a variety of sports will dedicate their play to those in our world who lack basic freedoms. Tents will be set up with experimental activities to raise awareness and promote advocacy on behalf of trafficking survivors and victims. At other places on campus, students, many of them male, will don high heels and walk to raise awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence as part of Alpha Chi Omega’s “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” campaign.

These are but a few examples of how Lynchburg College stays hopeful by doing hopeful things. And we do these things together, finding that relationships and community help us to heal. In the words of Julius Segal: “. . . if we are to strengthen and maintain our optimism and resilience it is essential that we interact with people who accept us and from whom we gather strength . . . we all thrive on its presence.” So find a cause for which you are passionate, gather friends, and make a difference, one hopeful act at a time.

Peace,
Anne