Fwd: Let's talk about hope

Begin forwarded message:

From: Will Watson <watsonwilliamb@gmail.com>
Date: November 25, 2009 6:01:27 PM CST

Subject: Let's talk about hope

Quotes from the road and geez magazine.

Is it naive?

Does it lead us to violent ideologies?

Is it the "heart of change" or a "psychological crutch" of the privileged?

"if we put all our eggs in the basket of hope, will we still be able to lament, console, confess, redeem, love, and believe?"

"for those in tune with the spirit, who open their ears within ears, hope will be as familiar as the firmament. That we can conceive of something grand, that as mortals we have perceived that which we feebly call divine--not out of this world, but the very essence of this world--reveals an opportunity to participate in something larger, fuller, prior to ourselves, worlds, histories, and futures."



"I want to be with you.

You can't.

Please.

You can't. You have to carry the fire.

I don't know how to.

Yes you do.

Is it real? The fire?

Yes.

Where is it? I don't know where it is.

Yes you do. It's inside you. It was always there. I can see it."


Realism or idealism. They seem so mutually exclusive, and yet I don't want them to be. The idealists lose touch with reality and become inconsequential, lost in their hope of other worlds. But the realists, become complacent because nothing we do will ever change anything. I'll give my life fighting for freedom, love and beauty and all the things in which I believe, but it won't change anything. Me and/or all the other fighters. But our world needs both.

And either way, the fire says I keep burning.

soon

"what is love? commitment to another person's mess. it's being willing to follow another person into the nastiest darkest places in their heart and risk them hating you for having followed them, and staying. for the mess, not despite it."

andrew wrote that, and as hard as it is, i completely agree.

firetower sunrise 2

after night, comes a light.

"the daylight seems to want you, just as much as i want you."

i grew up

two years ago today.

the boy in the alley. nairobi. pre-dawn streets. blood everywhere, intermingled with trash and broken glass. body shaking. face convulsed in pain. and that single tear that went down his cheek silently.

it took me a month, but eventually i wrote about it. or tried to. i had nothing to say, so i tried to say everything.

basically, the mob beat him. accused of stealing, he was beaten to the ground and stoned and kicked. we found him barely alive. his brother, wild with glue, had come to find us screaming for help. so we found the broken body in a back alleyway, and took him to the hospital, but i've always suspected he didn't make it because of internal bleeding and blunt force trauma to the head.

yeah, it sucks. but i never want his story to be suppressed. i don't even know his name, but that was a life, worth more than anything material in this world.

there's still 300,000 street children in Kenya alone. street children are a product of the desperation of extreme poverty. let's do something about that. i don't have all the answers, but i know that in light of the excess at our fingertips, that is wrong. it's estimated that 20 billion dollars would alleviate world hunger. 20 billion dollars is equal to 9 days of global spending on weapons and defense. and we will spend 47 billion dollars on ice cream this year.

why? why is it that those children on nairobi's streets use glue to get high so they don't feel hunger pains when 9 days of military spending around the world would feed the world's hunger? it seems elementary that we could give up 9 days of building more bombs to feed the hungry.

why hasn't it already been done?

it will take you.me.all.of.us.

facebook's latest

My roommate just showed me how the latest newest most bestest more
better greatest more connected more powerful more exciting and smarter
facebook now gives you suggestions on who you should catch up with,
whose wall you should write on, and other things you should do in your
virtual world.

The implications of that are just terrifying, and absolutely ridiculous.

I really just want to learn what it means to truly be present.

Firetower sunrise