319: To Be Hopeful in Bad Times

Difficult times in the world can easily drive us towards the worst of ourselves. When we become rigid, or narrow in our thinking, or too certain about the rightness of our position… or when we forget how to acknowledge the pain of the other.



But difficult times can also be when we choose to bring forward the best of ourselves, to live in our communities and our homes in the way, as Howard Zinn says, ‘that human beings should live’ when we are in contact with the compassion, courage and kindness that is our true nature. How might we begin to walk that path when it calls to us?



Hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.



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Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.



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To Be Hopeful in Bad Times



To be hopeful in bad times is based on the fact that human history is not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we only see the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act.



And if we do act, in however, small way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presence, and to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself, a marvellous victory.



Howard Zinn



Photo by Kristel Hayes on Unsplash