HOPE

Sometimes the best teachers are the worst we have ever had. We learn what we do not want to be, or how we do not want to act through them. And on a morning like this morning, we remember there is something more.

I am up in Yukon Territory Canada. The Solstice has slipped by with barely a recognition by myself. I was busy.

I have been waning in The Hope department as of late. How could I not be as I watched Iran bomb US Tankers, listened to the reviews of a new biography describing a rape committed 20+ years ago by Canada's next door neighbors President, and just this week listened to the "Great Man, Great Leader" suggest to American Citizens, born in the U S of A, that are US Senators that they should go home to where they come from, was what I believe the general sentiment was. Students in Honk Kong, feeling tired and despondent that their protests, fighting for democracy, are not being recognized on a global level, are killing themselves. As I said I was busy, busy trying to understand the problem as I seek solutions.

I myself had begun to feel despondent, and then something happened. Or maybe nothing happened but that I opened my eyes and looked in another direction.

Just this week there was a man, that I had never heard of before, that passed away. An old friend of mine posted it on his Facebook Feed. He was a White South African musician, that through the trials of his life was a part of the fall of Apartheid. His music that combined English and Zulu lyrics, made the UK Top 40 Charts in the late 80's, helped to change the world.

When I saw the great and late Nelson Mandella dancing on stage with him I was taken back to another time. A time when we celebrated the small guy that became a leader through persecution, and struggles. Men made great not by what they said, who their allies were, or what their credentials were, but because of what they believed in and that they were willing to walk thousands of long hard and hot miles for those they lead.

A link to an article about Johnny Cleggs life and 2 music videos I highly recommend.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/16/738065415/johnny-clegg-a-uniting-voice-against-apartheid-dies-at-66?fbclid=IwAR2hVwSpnU3Cpm4iP1FZNFi1VQY0ggg42_ly5t0xzE1rsR25Yc-X2yN2ljA

I do not have much more to say this morning except that these people are still out there. There is a sixteen year old girl in Vancouver, that organizes protests every Friday to stop plastic from consuming our Oceans and our World, there are people right now handing out clean rigs in The Downtown East Side, there are 100,000 of people all over this World that are screaming that there is a better way than Protectionism, Fear Mongering, and Hate.

I understand where this far right mentality has come from, really from our lower left. If you go far enough to the right you become left. If you go far enough to the left you become right.

I do not want to blame Trump as I believe him to be a little boy lost, just wanting to fit in with the big kids, and we have all been there, and then when we get there it can be easy to let things get a little out of control.

Get a little full of ourselves.

Power can do terrible things to all of us, especially if we once had been bullied. Whether Trump would admit it or not, as he definitely would not, he had been bullied. Maybe he does not even know it. Coming from a Grandfather that ran a Brothel in The Klondike to make his millions, I can only imagine the pressure to succeed. That in itself can make a bully, oh excuse me, it has.

I guess what I am trying to say on this amazing Northern morning is can we working class people remember that there were different times. Times before a man told us all the news was fake so we would stop reading it, and listening to it. Uneducated people are easier to lead. Times, before we were taught it was easier to take, than to give. There were better times full of hope. I believe that that hope is still out there.

As I feel the left side of my heart flap in the breeze and lag with a lack of enthusiasm I still have hope, as weary and tired as it might be, this old heart of mine, I still have hope!

This fall there will be many students here in Canada and the USA, for that matter around the world that will be entering University for their first semester, and they will be the first generation to do so. That is hopeful. Right now there is someone doing something nice for someone, not for money, not because helping another helps yourself, but simply because that person needs help.

I am grateful for a moment today, and I hope it sustains. I am grateful because I remembered perspective is everything and that although the dark might be winning right now, the dawn will come, the sun will rise again on humanity.

I will leave you with two interesting thoughts. It is not always about being right, but it is always about doing the right thing, and sometimes we have to, and I mean have too, lose to win. It does not just take smarts and bravado to be a great leader, it also takes empathy and wisdom.

May the rest of the summer build great memories for you, warm your soul, and remind you of what truly matters in life. When you tuck your children in tonight, lean over to kiss your wife on the cheek, gaze out at the lake, or simply cuddle up with your dog, remember that right now someone is fighting, fighting hard, possibly choosing to give up their life, for democracy. Not democracy for white, or black, or right or left, but democracy for the world, for all of the worlds children.

I will continue to watch the news, and do my best to learn so that we can find a solution amongst the pain. I will do my best to remember that we are in this together and that always there is HOPE. And I hope the same for you. Please check out the link above that I have embedded, and I hope it reminds you that with a little hard work bridges can be built, as it reminded me.