Today we went to Polesden Lacy thinking to find some peace. We set off across the lawns, dodging excited children and dogs, walking towards the furthest corner where there is a small spring garden. In January this earth will be alight with snowdrops but if you look carefully you can already see tiny shoots. We may not have found quiet but we did find hope in the darkness.
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
Howard Zinn
That was beautiful. Thank you. Balm for the soul on a weekend like this.
ReplyDeleteThis is perfect Alice. Thank you. x
ReplyDeleteVery glad to have been introduced to Howard Zinn with this quote.
ReplyDeleteJan, Sam and Lucille
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful responses to this post. We had a wonderful evening with MasterM and MissM in the heart of London on Fridayand it was only as we left them that we heard the news from Paris. The horror and the darkness of it were very real to us that night.