I was inspired once again by listening to On Being yesterday (here). This time it was Krista Tippet's interview with Junot Diaz, author, Boston Review fiction editor, and the Ridge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at MIT. Professor Diaz has a piece that was published in the November 21, 2016 New Yorker magazine about radical hope in light of Donald Trump's win.I have, for sometime, felt that it is necessary to live with radical ambiguity and radical persistence. I also have felt that hope is necessary so that we don't fall into despair and inability to act. I will now say that I want to live with radical hope. In his piece (here), Professor Diaz quotes the philosopher Jonathan Lear's definition of radical hope. Radical hope is not warm and fuzzy.
This is a quote from Jonathan Lear: “What makes this hope radical,” Lear writes, “is that it is directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is.” Diaz then talks about radical hope is something you practice. This piece is succinct, but quite lovely - or at least I think so. It talks about the type of hope that can keep each of us moving forward, taking one step at a time to get where we want to be. To help us not give up. To keep finding the light in the darkness.
The first photo is Ron Smith's and was found on unsplash.com
The second photo is from my book Opening the Heart: Meditations on How to Be (here).
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