Absurd Hope

“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.”― Walter Brueggemann

“May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that we will live deeply in our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression
and exploitation of people and the earth,
so that we will work for justice, equity and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer,
so that we will reach out our hands
to comfort them and change their pain to joy.
And may God bless us with the foolishness to think that
we can make a difference in our world,
so that we will do the things which others say cannot be done.” – Sister Ruth Fox

To be in the world and not of it.
To not succumb to fear.
To keep swinging.
To stay in the game rather than spectate.
To contribute rather than criticize.
To care rather than numb.
To not accept the status quo.
To character not flash.
To delineate, see through, understand.
To principles not rhetoric.
To laughter, light, awe, wonder, beauty.
To compassion, heart, kindness, resilience, optimism, joy, love.
Absurd, radical, gritty, tough, foolish, brilliant hope.
Lighthouse in the night.
To do things which others say cannot be done.
Fight the good fight.

“Hope, on one hand, is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts. Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk. On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.”― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination