You have probably heard the saying, “Love isn’t something you feel. It is something you do.” As John Mayer said: Love ain't a thing During the past few weeks, I have thought a lot about hope. How hope is also more of a verb than a noun. Hope is something we do. How do we practice hope during a pandemic? I’ve had a lot of feelings since the coronavirus hit the US.
And yet. Sunday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the air was warm, birds were singing. It was an ideal spring day. So I decided to do some work in the garden. Gardening in March, in the face of a pandemic, is certainly a practice of hope. As I pulled weeds, and moved rocks to expand my garden bed, and planted seeds, I thought about hope. I have no idea if I will be able to tend to this garden in two weeks. Or two months. Or two years. I continued anyway. Preparing the soil the best I could for what comes next. For the things I can attend to and the things outside of my control. While I worked in the sun, I realized that my social justice work has taught me how to practice hope. Practicing hope isn’t about feeling hopeful. It is about cultivating the conditions for change. It requires a bit of faith in something greater than ourselves. A vision for what can be. And a willingness to give of ourselves toward that better future. In my research, teaching, and advocacy work, I am constantly practicing hope. Engaging in work to uproot inequalities and plant the seeds of change. Even when I doubt that I will live to see the fruits of that labor.
The pandemic has made (more) visible the deep problems of our society.
I could go on. Trust me. I don’t fault people for focusing their energy and resources right now on surviving the coronavirus pandemic. People we love are going to become ill. People we love are going to die. We don’t know how long we are going to be asked to live in social isolation. To adapt our lives for the best chance we have to “flatten the curve.” But I am not interested in going back to the “way things were.” When we accepted losing people to police shootings, and poverty, and intimate partner violence, and environmental racism. Now is the time to practice hope. To cultivate the conditions for change. Change within ourselves and within our systems. Now is the time to create a vision for a better future. And to dedicate ourselves to bringing that vision to life. Britney G Brinkman, PhD. Comments are closed.
|
AboutEMPOWERTAINMENT aims to take a critical look at media in regards to how gender and women/girls are portrayed. From popular articles, videos, and websites, to original submissions, we want to not only examine the media and its relation to gender, but help shift it. Archives
November 2017
Categories |