“Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk…hope is subversive…The language of hope and the ethos of amazement have been partly forfeited because they are an embarrassment…partly squelched because they are a threat…Speech about hope cannot be explanatory and scientifically argumentative; rather, it must be lyrical in the sense that it touches the hopeless person at many different points…The language of amazement is against…despair just as the language of grief is against…numbness…Hope is created by speech…” – Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, p. 65, 68-69 (1978/2001)
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“The language of hope and the ethos of amazement” have been the domains of storytellers for millenia. They still are. As tellers of tales, we are unbridled, not limited to the perceived limitations that ensnare and restrain the current “reality.”
Walter Brueggemann’s thoughts on hope grow out of his reflections on the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, but his observations on hope fit a much wider context. For example, scientists’ arguments about Global Climate Change have been largely ignored. While there are powerful forces at work attempting to undermine and muddy their scientific findings, it is also true that their arguments for change (i.e. their calls for hope) lack lyricism. Their scientific explanations and arguments do not “touch the hopeless person at many different points.” There is no lyricism of the poetic storyteller. We are left with either denial or hopelessness.
The work of the storyteller is not only to reflect who we are, but to mirror back to us who we can be. We are drawn toward inspiring stories. Why? What do they “inspire” in us? Is it not something better/greater/vaster/kinder/more worthy than what currently is? Our work as storytellers is to be agents of inspiration: You can do this. We can be this. This, too, is possible.
Saying some new reality is possible does not make it so. That is true. There is much more to it than that.
At the same time, saying and thinking that some better reality is an impossibility ensures that it cannot happen – at least until some subversive voice speaks with the “language of hope” and the “ethos of amazement.”
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Recall a story that inspired you. It may be from a film, a book, or a tale someone told you. What was it in that story that touched you? Was there something amazing that happened in the tale? Have you shared this story with others? Are there stories you sometimes tell yourself to awaken hope within? Are there other tales you share or would like to share that hold the possibility of inspiring hope in others?
(Music: Courtesy of Adrian Von Ziegler, “Sacred Earth.” )