If you are like me you hear the words “hope is” and immediately your brain fills in the rest:
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in your soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
But hope isn’t that. Not always. It isn’t etheral. It isn’t some mysterious constant. It isn’t even optimistic.
Hope is trial and error
Sweat and deep concentration
A knowing that better things lie ahead
Despite the current frustration
I’m no Emily Dickinson. But my version is truer for me, although less beautiful. Hope doesn’t just come. We call it into being, create it, nurture it, work at it. And thank goodness hope isn’t just the thing with feathers because my wings have been clipped. We can’t travel, our shows have been cancelled months ahead. So I hope.
I hope that in this strange period of tumultous quiet we discover the things that really matter to us and what we can let go of. I hope that we learn we can do with less. I hope that our pace slows a bit so we can experience each moment. I hope that my beloved local shops and retaurants have survived, that the small bookstore still thrives, that good coffee and good cheese are still being made by hand. I hope we deeply miss our friends and are reminded how important they are. I hope we recognize that there are a lot of people out there who are friends we haven’t me yet and we value them as well. I hope, that on the other end of this, the habit of listening to music together in a room hasn’t been supplanted by some lesser substitute.
By hope, I mean that I have a knowing that these things will be true if I try, if I work hard enough to sweat and challenge my thinking. My energy will change the trajectory. Here’s what that looks like.
When we begin to leave the house again, I will support small business over larger ones even if it means less choices and more dollars. That is the right choice and the right choice isn’t always the easiest choice. I will make that a habit, and when the wider world opens up I won’t break that habit. When the small town I am in is your town, not mine, you will have to guide me so be ready to recommend coffee shops, bookstores, and more.
I will commit to seasonal eating where possible to sustain a local food supply and yes that means I don’t get everything I want when I want it. Of course I won’t suspend my joy, there will be indulgences, but they will be savored. And I am sure there will be new joyful indulgences discovered in this process. I’ll get by with less, won’t be wasteful, so that I have more to give and more to put away for a small emergency.
I will campaign for people, support issues more than ever. Because we can’t do this alone, we have to work together to make our changes more permanent. I will be paying attention to the details, the systematic steps that are taken by our communities and lawmakers. We have witnessed how vulnerable our policies make our people and we cannot willingly allow that to go on.
And when the wider world opens again, I will gasp in its splendor, every mile of it. We’ll hit the road and sing with more heartfelt emotion than we knew possible. We will relish telling our stories and hearing yours. But it can’t go back to business as what was once usual. My community of artists, writers, and musicians suffered. Hard. We need a better model. I am going to hope for that. And Hope is not just a thing with feathers.