Active Hope vs. Abject Despair

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Nov 23

Written By Tejal Patel

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I've been really connecting to the Movement Memos podcast and considering the questions: What is Hope? What is the role of hope in my life and in the world we live in right now?

I think oftentimes, I am in abundant gratitude in a way that feels warm and fuzzy and I find myself hoping for a better way to co-exist. And even with the organizing, communicating, supporting, showing up, sometimes that hope doesn't feel fruitful.

I want hope to be significant and important and sometimes I get stuck thinking about how that can happen. Which is why I resonate so much with these words from Mariame Kaba, co-author of Let This Radicalize You:

"Joanna Macy has this way of differentiating between passive and active hope. And passive hope is, kind of, I think she talks about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. And then active hope is about becoming an active participant in bringing about what we hope for."

They go on to share that active hope can happen simultaneously while grieving, while loathing, while processing other heavy and big emotions. I love this inclusion into how we can actively hope.

It offers to me the support that the activism work we do around yoga and authentic and holistic practices of yoga, in which we talk about spiritual bypassing as a means of overlooking important tenets of yoga in order to have mono-feelings or just the love or just the lightness or just the hope, resonates in other spaces, particularly here in organizing spaces advocating for radicalization and reciprocal care.

I consider the complete other side of things as well. I think it's the dramatic Sagittarius nature in me that often looks to the shadow side and sometimes sits (for too long) in what lies there. Lately, I've been touching despair. I've been noticing the ways it has crept in and settled in. A visitor and guest that didn't announce themself yet found a seat and felt completely entitled to stay for the unforeseeable future.

I try to remember my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh's words from You Are Here:

"If you feel irritation or depression or despair, recognize their presence and practice this mantra: "Dear one, I am here for you." You should talk to your depression or your anger as you would to a child. You embrace it tenderly with the energy of mindfulness and say, "Dear one, I know you are there, and I am going to take care of you," just as you would with your crying baby."

I am guilty of swiping away videos of abject despair, death, and irrevocable harm. I am guilty of looking away to enjoy a meal and enjoy the sunshine on my face while walking down a clean street free of rubble or smells of destruction and doom.

And yet, in continuing to find my practice I recognize I am not guilty for it all. I am practicing the Both And that is occurring and contextualizing the ways that we are subject to destruction and horror and the ways in which we are complicit and in control.

We have the ability to affect change, we have the ability to look away. You and your circle of support can help guide you in what to choose. You can wake up each day and ask yourself, "What will my focus be today? How can I help lessen suffering today?"

From the words of the organizers that continue to lead the way:

"Something about rooting your hopes in action makes you feel less helpless. It makes you feel less acted upon. And I don’t think that’s naive. I don’t think that’s “magical thinking.”

No, I believe very strongly that our present actions matter, even though we don’t have an idea of how the future is going to turn out."

Mariame Kaba, from Movement Memos, a Truthout Podcast, episode: Let This Conversation With Mariame Kaba Radicalize You

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Actions to support a Free Palestine, call for permanent ceasefire, and an end to occupation:

If you haven't already, visit 5calls.org to call your Reps.
Use Fax Zero to send your request for free via fax to reps that have fax numbers (Senator Ted Lieu doesn't have a fax #)
Visit the Stop Gaza Genocide Actions Toolkit here for more.

Holiday?

If you're heading to see relatives over this holiday break, consider the conversations you wish to engage in, wish to bring to the table, and wish to avoid/exit, before seeing family.

This exercise can help you plan how to interact in advance rather than feeling stuck in the moment.

Consider this: