In My Head

Hope Rules

THE PARADOX of the human experience intrigues. In nearly all aspects of life, we are called to two directions at once. We must be present and yet active: Without action we die and without presence we have no purpose to our actions and move stormily through existence. We need goals and purpose, but we also must accept where we are now. So it is with hope.

Things go badly sometimes. We have no control over most of our universe, save our own behavior. Sometimes even that doesn't go so well. Sometimes we feel like giving up, throwing in the towel, calling it quits, cashing in our chips, forgetting it all. Some of us do. Most of us don't.

What keeps us coming back for more? We hope. We hope for a better day, a brighter tomorrow, greater clarity, a break, or to be a true servant of god. The night is always darkest before the dawn. Every cloud has a silver lining. Always look on the bright side of life. Hakuna matata. There's always tomorrow. Without hope, our painful existence becomes hell on earth. There must be something better, just around the corner.

But what if we had no hope? What if all we had was this moment? What if we knew that things would never get better? What if this is as good as it gets? Is that reason enough to jump off a ledge, never looking back? Or could we reframe our thinking into the present, without regard for outcome or progress?

This quarter we loosely look at the question, the role of hope. Rabbi Howard Apothaker describes hope through historical and contemporary Jewish perspectives. Without hope, we have nothing. Joe Fox-Barrett describes a new movement in local radio with the hope and promise of healing the airwaves. Cheryl Rapose's article advises us to relinquish our hope: Expectation must be secondary to being present. Hope well and true advises Thatcher Ross, without attachment to outcomes and with a clear heart.

This issue presents the addition of three new writers. Seth Deutsch reviews Robert Bly and Kristine Hayes reviews the avocado. Donna Sigl-Davies, M.A., P.C.C., collaborates with Eric Davies in "The Nature of Change," and calls us to honor the wisdom of the Earth in our own lives. Welcome aboard.

Fall 2004 marks the second anniversary of our publication. At the early stages of this magazine, I imagined that it had its own energy, it was its own organism, had its own will, and would survive if it chose to. I am grateful for its presence and am honored to be part of its existence. It is much bigger than I am.

We live in difficult times, personally, locally, and globally. I have hope for a better tomorrow, and I wait to see what each day brings, thankful for the opportunity to bear witness to a process which has an infinite wisdom greater than I could ever begin to imagine. I hope for us all, that we may become, individually and collectively, exactly what we need to be and grow to points heretofore unknown. I hope for us all.

Very truly yours,
Stevan A. Walkowski, D.O.
Editor