What does it mean to have hope? I have struggled often with being hopeful in what I frequently find to be a depressing world. Our planet contains vast natural wonders that defy imagination, and most of the people I know best strive to live good lives. Yet, we humans perpetrate death, destruction, and needless conflict on an almost unimaginable scale. While I generally find many reasons to hope in my day-to-day life of relative privilege and affluence, the state of the world as a whole is deeply concerning, and the massive scale of many of the global systems-level problems we face seem significant and challenging enough so as to extinguish hope. How is hope possible when hundreds of species cease to exist by the day and projections on the climate crisis suggest that even in a best-case scenario, vast amounts of human suffering and death will result from our collective failure to live more sustainably?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, I have hope. Perhaps more than I should given all that I know about the state of the world. Some of the thinkers who have been most influential in my life have spoken in great depth about hope. Indeed, the Brazilian educator Paulo Friere wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hopelessness is a form of silence, of denying the world and fleeing from it. The dehumanization resulting from an unjust order is not a cause for despair but for hope, leading to the incessant pursuit of the humanity denied by injustice<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This articulation of the importance of hope is the main reason I choose not to sink into despair. When we despair, we accept the failures of our society and world as they are, rather than working for a better, more humane future. Mariame Kaba has popularized the phrase, “hope is a discipline.” It is easy to despair. It is easy to not work out, or eat unhealthily, or persist in other habits of mind and body that we know are not optimal for ourselves or the world. So, like exercise, hope requires personal discipline. Each day, I must take action to find hope and to work towards a more just future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how is that related to restarting a blog? One idea\/cliche I often push on my students is that practice makes perfect and that the only way we improve at anything is by practicing. I hope that the practice of blogging is a model of my own writing practice. I recently read a blog post by Cory Doctorow<\/a> whose prolific writing I have admired since I first picked up Little Brother<\/em> in 2009. In the post, he says, “Writing for an audience keeps me honest.” By that, he means publically discussing ideas for an audience of some friends and (mostly) strangers makes him develop and share concrete ideas. On top of that, it persists as an archive of semi-developed thoughts that is useful to systematically review past ideas, and also as a repository of ideas on which to construct future work. It is a building block in a meaningful contribution to human discourse, even if we realize that we disagree with a past version of ourselves. Looking back at my most sustained period of blogging when I lived and taught in Tanzania<\/a>, I notice ideas that have continued with me, but also incorrect judgments. After Tanzania, I stopped blogging because so much of my writing (at that point) was about my teaching experiences, and I didn’t feel confident in my ability to express those ideas without passing judgment on systems I was a part of. In short, I was scared of the possible work-related consequences of honestly sharing my ideas and not confident in my ability to construct compelling posts. And, to be honest, I got lazy, and I stopped writing for an audience outside of my work teaching as a result. I believe my writing has suffered as a result, so this will be my practice and this will keep me honest and disciplined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other reason I am starting a blog is that I think hope is important. Although I hope my students gain many things from my classes, hope for a better and more just future, followed by discipline in working towards those goals is a top priority. As a result, I also intend to model disciplined action and develop hopeful perspectives and ideas grounded in the reality of existence, or one view of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I will blog as an act of hope, and as a practice of modeled discipline rooted in a desire to develop my writing and to archive my thoughts in a somewhat more systematic way than the digital files I have been using to journal over the last handful of years. Enjoy (or don’t), but I am hopeful that this process will be iterative and hope-generating for me and perhaps for others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What does it mean to have hope? I have struggled often with being hopeful in what I frequently find to be a depressing world. Our planet contains vast natural wonders that defy imagination, and most of the people I know best strive to live good lives. Yet, we humans perpetrate death, destruction, and needless conflict…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[3,2],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","category-teaching","tag-discipline","tag-hope"],"yoast_head":"\n
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