The world is burning yet there is hope
Juxtaposition is an awkward word. It feels odd to say, strange to write and dubious to use. Yet I think it accurately describes my emotional and spiritual standing at the moment. Externally the world is on edge. There are no breaks. From mass shootings in the States, to atrocities and a looming genocide in the Middle East, it is pretty grim all over.
However, in the minutiae of my day-to-day life, I have had a series of pleasant experiences rolling in to each other. Strengthening positive beliefs and reaffirming my faith in the universe, which often seems capricious, or indifferent at best.
Take it back a few weeks from now. Something genuinely of-this-current-era happened. I had a very sentimental moment watching a TikTok video of a person I’ve never met. The video was a montage of clips from this person’s social life, interspersed with footage of London cityscapes. It was accompanied by the reading of a section of the poem ‘Fear and Fridays’ by Zach Bryan. A few lines resonated with me particularly strongly.
I’ve learned that every waking moment is enough and еxcess never lеads to better things, it only piles and piles atop the things that are already abundantly in front of you like breathing and chasing and slow dancing and love making, fighting and laughing
Zach Bryan – Fear and Fridays (poem)
At the time of watching the clip, I had recently spent a two-day get away in London with my other half to watch a gig of the band The National. It was a fantastic city break. I’ve mentioned the struggles with raising my young children elsewhere. My wife and I rarely have date nights. It’s been a tough few years.
The break itself for me symbolized a return to building our relationship together, rather than just getting on with daily life and hoping for the best between us. I was thinking then, if only we had a community of supportive friends around us we would have it all.
Roll on the Pleasantries
The following weekend my family and I attended a small scale festival at a local nature reserve. In the café I bumped into someone who had come to a board games night at my house. He introduced his wife and daughter to us. Then another local family we know turned up, and then another. It was beginning to feel very communal.
A short while later, in the woodland playground, I bumped into a neighbour who I know to talk to and had a pleasant chat with him. I saw in that moment that we do have an emerging community of supportive people around us.
The pleasant happenings were topped off last Sunday when I successfully planned and delivered my son’s 5th Birthday party in a local community hall. The afterglow of arranging this gathering left me genuinely glowing for days. Then, on Tuesday, I had a great conversation with a group of colleagues over lunch. The discussion was wide-ranging and generally uplifting. My key take away was the importance of hope, and I recalled the phrase from somewhere ‘he who has hope has everything’.
Later that afternoon, when attending a ‘solidarity space’ for current global events at my place of work and hearing context from a regional specialist, I made a mental note. The note was simple. It was a strapping acknowledgement of my good fortune. To be able to say “every waking moment is enough” is for me the most powerful line in Zach Bryan’s poem. A later line declares “I do not and will not fear tomorrow”. This is my sentiment exactly.
So why does this matter?
Foreign wars and mass shootings are largely outside of our zone of control. I’m not saying we can ignore all of that. My point is that focusing on what we can control helps massively. This includes helping others on the scale we can. Building communal bridges, strengthening community ties and creating social capital.
At the same time, from a psychological perspective, if we believe that events in the world are happening for us rather than to us then we can prosper. Individually, and more broadly. I have seen it written somewhere that there are two things that are key in life: effort and attitude. Both are within our control.
Furthermore, we must recognize what really matters. Community matters. Perspective matters. Just as no man is an island, no family can prosper in social isolation. Perhaps there are exceptions, but I’ll stick by that.
Final Thoughts
We all need each other, and we all need to keep things in perspective. Especially when confronted with such drama on a larger scale. Can we fix our broken politics? What about our corrupt media? Wealth redistribution? Human Rights?
I don’t have the answers, but we will certainly do a lot better on any scale if we believe we can improve, and focus on what we can change. The message is foster hope, not helplessness.