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Keeping Hope


Hey guys,

We hope this entry finds you in a posture of hope. As President Snow put it in The Hunger Games series, "Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous."

What he knew, and what we all felt when we heard him speak those words, was the truth of this claim. How many stories and heroes do you think would have been ignored by history if they gave up hope of the very best outcome from a really crappy situation? They hoped for something much, much better than what they were experiencing. I can imagine many of them hoping for a paradigm shift in how their people were treated, freedom. Many of them hoped for prosperity amid poverty. Many of them hoped that for a great evil to cease and many more simply hoped that the sickness would pass, so they held on.

Many of us may feel like we're living that last one out. That's because we are. Television and cinema always kept the idea of a pandemic in the back of our minds because it was safe and entertaining. It's neither of those right now. It's scary and hard to imagine what happens next, with every adjustment being more intense than the last one.

Do you want to know what we should do about it? Hope. We want you to hope that people are doing the right things. We want you to hope that politicians can come to appropriate resolutions - hope that your humanity isn't lost and remember that there are good and great people out there - hope that you can be one of them - hope that our action will actually lead to the best possible outcome.

Our ability to survive and to thrive is contingent on how much hope that we have. Because, more often than not, our behavior is dictated by the hopes that we have. If we give up smiling, treating each other with respect, trying our best and working hard...then we've given up hope of those things actually having an impact on this whole thing. Question: why even survive this if we don't have hope of a happier future?

We hope you can look at the future, see the light, and the very best in your neighbor as the crap hits the fan. Here's to hope, wherever she is.

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