On the run in to a conference on ‘Hope in the Dark’ – July 2022

WHERE LIES THE FORCE OF NATURE

Not just the intellectual giants, nor inspired poets.
Not just great scholars, or instant-response quizzers.
Not those who stand out in a crowd of specialists.
Not master builders, gold medal athletes or tennis stars.

Every person, every creature, every blade of grass,
each ant, mountain, ocean, seed or thunderous storm,
flourishes by dint of nature’s energy in ceaseless flow.
Accepting this will enhance our ability to help earth grow.

Rebecca Solnit pithily explains, ‘Hope is not a lottery ticket’,
but ‘an axe you break down doors with in an emergency.
‘To hope is to give yourself knowingly to the future’,
a commitment to make the present world inhabitable.”

“Hope in the Dark’ is the call for the big structural change
we need in this survival emergency before us now.
Contribute to the urgent need of reparations and a just transition
to a world where all are fully human stewards of God’s free gifts.

The pandemic has served well the clique of billionaires,
the world’s 10 richest own more ‘wealth’ than
the world’s poorest 40 percent of all humanity.
Current economic structures can hold no future place.

The key areas of pandemic profiteering are
such basic human necessities as food,
medicine, energy, technology and ‘hope in the light’.
‘So be it’ depends on you and me playing our part.