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Jules's avatar

“To live holding both the terrifying and unjust in mind while at the same time finding strength to do the drone work of living is a juggling act we perform with various degrees of success at different times of our lives.” Love this ❤️

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Penny's avatar

As do I ♥️

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Risha Lötter's avatar

Also, as it so happens, I can came across this poem just today. It feels quite fitting:

Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat

by Caitlin Seida

Hope is not the thing with feathers

That comes home to roost

When you need it most.

Hope is an ugly thing

With teeth and claws and

Patchy fur that’s seen some shit.

It’s what thrives in the discards

And survives in the ugliest parts of our world,

Able to find a way to go on

When nothing else can even find a way in.

It’s the gritty, nasty little carrier of such

diseases as

optimism, persistence,

Perseverance and joy,

Transmissible as it drags its tail across

your path

and

bites you in the ass.

Hope is not some delicate, beautiful bird,

Emily.

It’s a lowly little sewer rat

That snorts pesticides like they were

Lines of coke and still

Shows up on time to work the next day

Looking no worse for wear.

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Karin Schimke's avatar

That is marvellous! Hahaha. Hope is a lowly little sewer rat. Brilliant!

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Penny's avatar

I am a big believer in hope as a source of daily fuel as well as curiosity too. I’ve also reached a point in my life where with an eternal heart for social justice, I can and must hope to use my position of privilege for making a small difference in this massive f***ed up world. Thank you as always for your delicious love letters x

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Karin Schimke's avatar

Curiosity and hope are very much linked, it seems to me. And I think it ties in with Rebecca Solnit's idea that both pessimism nor optimism assume knowledge about the future, whereas hope admits it cannot know the future. To be curious is to be open to how things will unfold. Thank you, Penny, for being a delicious reader!

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Risha Lötter's avatar

I absolutely love this, and will return to it many times. Thank you!

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