I remain a "defiant optimist", but even I have become discouraged by the latest events in this precious world of ours. Now we are apparently entering a new cold war as countries jockey for power and control. But I take comfort from the fact that we never can accurately predict what the outcomes will be, life always manages to give us the unexpected and resistance is never futile. Angela Davis has said "Hope is a discipline, we must cultivate hope." So keep on keeping on, as the old rock song said. I leave you with Emily Dickinson's beautiful poem:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.