Tag: hope

Jung’s Encouragement

Welcome 2022

Those of you who have read my blog (foundationalhope.com) know two things: 1) I haven’t posted any new material in some time and 2) I am always looking for inspiration to illustrate the theme of my blogsite, “The Power and Promise of Hope.” As the New Year begins, I have decided to get back to writing on a more regular basis and hopefully to find new resources that help heal the wounds that we read about so often in the news.

I offer this excerpt from C.G. Jung. In Volume 10, paragraph 295 of his Collected Works. Jung writes, “Whenever a civilization reaches its highest point, sooner or later a period of decay sets in. But the apparently meaningless and hopeless collapse into a disorder without aim or purpose, which fills the onlooker with disgust and despair, nevertheless contains within its darkness the germ of a new light.”

Ever since the winter solstice, the days are getting longer, more light is dissipating the darkness, and the new year offers each of us the opportunity to look with hope for better times ahead. Jung offered that a “germ of new light” is coming. What we do with that speck of light can make all the difference.

Our country has always come through the darkness of hard times, regrouped, and moved forward to even greater achievement. As a people, we can do that because we have found unity in common goals, values, aspirations, and needs. The question now is, as a country, do we still have a common set of goals, values, and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good? Can we unite before we divide and fall?

I hope we will decide, as we have in the past, to uncover the common good and to endure any sacrifice we must, to bring about another time of peace, of justice, and of bringing “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to new use and new meaning.

Happy New Year.

 

Planning the Day

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” E.B. White

I prefer a third option – my desire is to experience the world. I am too old to think much about improving the world. I don ‘t have many years left. Improving the world is a young person’s activity. Young people (anyone under 40 years old) still believe in their ability to plan a world according to the basic tenets of humankind – good and evil. I remain hopeful that good will triumph, but looking at our planet’s history of attempts at goodness I am not encouraged. Good intentions and hope-filled actions are almost always interrupted by darker forces – war, poverty, injustice, greed, pettiness, etc. Can you think of any time when good triumphed? As a Christian, I was brought up to believe that when Jesus comes back, goodness will reign supreme for eternity. But that hasn’t happened yet. Jesus’ last foray into sharing goodness with folks didn’t end so well so I have some doubts that the next time might end differently.

And one has to be completely immune to the news to believe one can enjoy the world. We are constantly bombarded with endless news cycles laying out for us the pain and suffering, the nihilism, the selfishness, and misunderstanding among folks who don’t seem to be enjoying each other’s company. It’s not just rich v poor, republican v democrat, all the common binary choices we are given to consider. It is the fundamental theme, I believe that you and I cannot enjoy the world because no one seems to know how to enjoy anything these days. The pandemic of 2020 makes enjoyment that much tougher. And these days, if I am caught enjoying most anything I am called horrible names describing my lack of understanding of, and compassion for, the oppression and marginalization of so many categories of people and situations. I am asked how I can enjoy the world when so many are suffering, are kept down, are disregarded, not seen as mattering.

So I am choosing all that’s left for me. I am choosing to experience the world. I choose to take in all that my senses can stand. I choose to engage fully with all points of view, reserving judgment, and condemnation as someone else’s right to decide. I choose to experience and observe everything around me. Some days there is horror, some days utter beauty and simplicity. Some days people are remarkably good, some days they turn on each other with venomous actions.

I am rejecting binary choices – good/bad, rich/poor, matters/doesn’t matter, useful/wasteful. No more drama, no more judgment, just jumping in to experience the world and wonder how it all fits together. You see when I am experiencing the world rather than improving or enjoying it, I get to choose the standards, the values, the definitions I use to describe what I experience in the world. I get to filter everything I experience through the lenses of the things I hold dear.

My filters are these: hope, noble purpose, compassion, easing suffering, giving, beauty, truth, justice, and several others close to my heart. So whatever the news I read or see or hear, I filter it through those virtues. Suddenly I find hope, I see folks doing kind, noble things for others, I see goodness in all that I experience. This is my choice – to experience the world through my values. That’s my plan.

A side benefit is that I find myself praying for the world to be touched by folks bent on improving it and I am encouraged by those who are finding they can enjoy the world. Me, I just experience the world according to what I hold dear. I try to live by three simple maxims paraphrased from John Wesley: do no harm, do all the good you can, find occasions to thank the world for not giving up on me, on us. That’s my plan for tomorrow. Have a great week, improving, enjoying, or experiencing the world. Find your own peace of mind.

Return to Normal

Hope never fails

Four years ago, I began writing a blog with the tag line, “The Power and Promise of Hope.” Things have changed radically since that first post. Today, as I return to blogging I am driven to redouble my faith in the power and promise of hope.

To have confidence in hope in 2020 is an act of faith to be sure. But what else have we? Alan Keightley quoted in Paper Lanterns – More Quotations from the Back Pages of The Sun wrote, “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”

You see for several months I have been overwhelmed with the news surrounding “current events”. Covid-19, protests, and marches. violence, civil unrest, being held captive in my own home unable to travel freely, or to enjoy a quiet meal with friends in a favorite restaurant. This is the world I am being forced to experience. This is what is passing now for “normal.” This is the world I am told to experience day after day.

I have come to realize and believe there is another way to view the world, to interact with the world, through the power and promise of hope. I am re-discovering an all-encompassing sense of hope. From where does my hope originate? My hope comes from my childhood memories. I remember hard-working parents who instilled in me a desire to be independent while never overlooking the needs of others. I remember friendly competition with my siblings as we grew to understand and appreciate one another. I remember lessons learned in church as well as lessons learned in school. I was fortunate to hear similar messages no matter where I was – do your best, help those who are in need, contribute to the common good.

I understand I am indeed fortunate to be able to recall these memories and these lessons. Others have not been so blessed. I cannot, however, squander or dismiss what I have experienced. I can only live each day in hope.

I hope we get a chance to create and live in a world of our own choosing, a world we can share with others guided by common values and virtues. I hope we will find more moments that unite us rather than divide us. I hope we will have the courage to speak to those who expect us to experience the world they have created for us – a world that is not demanding the best of human nature.

My faith tells me to do three things: 1) do no harm, 2) do all the good that I can, and 3) to stay in awe of the life set out for us by our Creator. We were created to experience a new world based on nurturing and affirming the best attributes of our shared humanity.

In my head, I keep hearing a song sung by the Youngbloods so many years ago. Let me end with one of the stanzas from that song and the chorus well known to so many.

“If you hear the song I sing you will understand (Listen) . You hold the key to love and fear all in your trembling hand. Just one key unlocks them both, it’s there at your command.

Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another now.”

That’s my hope. That’s the world I am going to find.

Never Hope Alone

 

NEVER HOPE ALONE

I have been paying attention lately, listening for the pronouns folks use when they talk about hope.  By far, the pronoun I hear most often is “I”.  As a result, I have begun to wonder if hope is a solitary endeavor, something one covets for oneself.

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Memorable Day Part One

A Story in Three Parts – A Memorable Day – Part One
The Run Up to Terror

Writing about one particular “memorable day” is a harder task than I first imagined.  I have had plenty of memorable days.  The account of this “memorable day” contains the accumulated memories of several days leading up to the day I remember as one of the most frightening days of my life.

With great clarity, I remember the first time I was helicoptered out to an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea to begin my first two-week shift, doing God knows what kind of labor.  All I knew was it would be hard, physical labor.  I also knew it would be potentially dangerous work.  If that wasn’t enough to engage my active, imaginative, suspicious, scared as hell mind set, nothing would be.

I had taken the train up from London to Aberdeen on Thursday, the day before I was to begin my new job.  That’s what the representative from my new employer told me I should do.

Here’s what I remember happened next, beginning with waking up at the Dee Motel in Aberdeen Scotland after a short night’s sleep.

My instructions from the company that had hired me to work on the oil rig were simple and clear: on Friday, be outside the Aberdeen Train Station promptly at 8:00 am to get on a shuttle bus that would take me to the Aberdeen Airport, the second leg of my trip to the rig.  Obviously the first leg was the trip from London to Aberdeen.

In fact, the train trip from London northward towards my own unique rendezvous with destiny was actually the second leg of a trip that started at the airport in Newark, New Jersey for my flight to Heathrow Airport London.  This first leg, second leg, narration will get very confusing very quickly.  So, let me be somewhat loose with some of the finer details of how and when I found myself standing outside the train station in Aberdeen that Friday morning in May.  Who really cares what leg of my journey this represented?

A cab picked me up at the motel about 7:15 am Friday morning.  I informed my cab driver that all I knew was I was to meet a shuttle bus taking folks from the train station to the airport to go out on an oil rig in the North Sea.  My brief travel instructions to the cabbie didn’t seem to phase him.  He obviously had done this before with other similarly confused passengers.

All too quickly, the cab stopped in front of the train station.

To be honest, I was hoping for a longer ride.  I hadn’t had enough time to deal with my increasing anxiety.  “Here you go, Laddie.”  I got out and the cabdriver got on with his day.

I wasn’t sure I was at the correct gathering spot at the train station. Folks who work on oil rigs don’t stand out from the general population.  They look normal.  But a large gathering of guys, standing in a group, smoking cigarettes and talking too loudly for 7:45 am was a tip off these guys might be my companions for the next two weeks.  In a vain attempt to start off on the right foot, I tried to engage the group in conversation.  They would have none of it.  I was no one of consequence, just a new face.  New faces didn’t show up in that group without some concerns for the veteran workers.  I would have to ease those concerns at some point.  For now, I followed the group onto the shuttle bus that had just arrived and off we went to the airport in Aberdeen.

Everything on the ride out to the airport was new to me.

It was routine to the others on the bus.  They were off to work.  I was off to adventure.  They weren’t as interested as I in the quaintness of the streets of Aberdeen or watching shops opening along the way or being fascinated by the early morning activity along the waterfront.  Like I said, they were going to work, I was going on an adventure.  Every flower and tree, every storefront sign, every sea gull looking for a free meal, every noise and smell was unfamiliar to me and held secrets to be explored.  My companions on the shuttle had milked dry the secrets of those scenes.  I was fascinated, they were oblivious.  My fascination would soon turn into terror.

End of Part One

Part Two will appear on January 17, 2018.

Struggling With Hope

Some of my best days are days in which I struggle.  Sometimes the struggle is physical, sometimes spiritual, but always the struggle screws with my understanding of myself and others.

 

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The Hole in My Backyard

I am digging a hole in my backyard.  I have been working on that hole for some time now. It’s turned out to be a bigger job than I had expected.  But I persevere and persist.  This project seems to have a life of its own.

 

 

 

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Why I Trust In Hope

“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.  The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.  (Marcus Aurelius)

 

In the past, I have had no success in conquering the first rule of Aurelius. Therefore, I have not been able to proceed to the second rule. When in the past, due to an unsettled spirit, a metaphorical/existential fork in the road has appeared before me, my spirit has imploded.  This is no way to live. Too many forks in the road, too many decisions to be made to have a troubled spirit.  That’s why I decided to seek out the spirit and confront it head on.  And as a result of this quest, I have found my trust in hope.

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What Was Her Hope

“A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work.” (sometimes attributed to Sir Izaak Walton)

 

I have enjoyed practicing the art of fly-fishing ever since a friend of mine coaxed me to buy my first rod and reel when I was a senior in college. Without false drama, I can state fly-fishing helped me cope with the ebb and flow of experiences that have, so far, made up my life.  How about you?  What has comforted you and helped you cope with your own ebb and flow of experiences?

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Standards of Hope

“People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.” (Tyron Edwards – 1809-1894)

 

 

 

 

There are groups and individuals with which we have contact.  Some inspire us, some attempt to control us, others categorize us.  How do we find those who will give us fresh perspective, give us affirmation, give us friendship?  Are we looking?                                                                               Continue reading “Standards of Hope”