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I read "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit last year, and I keep returning to this quote:

"I say all this because hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. I say it because hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed."

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This is awesome. Exactly on point.

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Well that sure was a fun one. Thanks. Can’t exactly put my finger on why the following popped into my head as I was reading but likely ‘twas tangential—the protagonist of this tale was raised to never be optimistic so’n that he’d never be disappointed. The story: This guy’s father ran a private trash collection service. The company’s motto was along these lines: Satisfaction Guaranteed or Double Your Trash Back.

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heh

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Trust, but verify --Reagan

Kinda like TR’s tread softly, with a big stick

Both have hope at the beginning. But, Y’all say hope is not a strategy.

We’ll, what is it?

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Hope is at the beginning of anything good.

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Nice...of course...it's the follow-thru that counts

I am reminded of 2015, visiting the Unexploded Ordinance Museum in Luang Prabang, Laos;

this, to me , was hope.

We were treated to awful statistics and videos of Nixon and Generals praising the need for this 250,000 tons of explosives dropped on this little peasant nation. Videos showed Naval Aircraft carriers had their chaplains calling upon God to watch over 😉 His faithful flock as they leveled thousands of square miles of delta farmland. 25% was never exploded, hence the name of this museum. They had examples of the tennis-ball sized bomblets which were scattered everywhere, each capable of killing many. Still a menace after half a century.

Hope is why the museum exists.

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