Friday, September 4, 2009

Messages of Hope

I'm a bit starved for inspiration today... but it's Friday, and I think that blogs should go into the weekend with a most recent post that is either amusing, important, or uplifting. My last post is none of these things, and so I'm wracking my brain for things to say.

Unfortunately, my brain isn't a very good place to go looking for things that are important or uplifting today (I won't comment on amusing - I'm a comedic legend in my own mind, 24/7). That fact is that I've spent a lot of my online time this week feeling pretty frustrated, pretty disgusted, and maybe even a bit forlorn about what humanity is up to.

From the former Auditor General vs. Toronto cyclist incident (which has been reported as far away as India and Malaysia) to the Alberta government's poorly handled and seemingly short-sighted decision to allow the closure of the Alberta Hospital to riots in Gabon to the continuing bad behavior of some Americans, and Canadians and their politicians (never mind all the horrible news in between), I can't help but look back on this week's snapshot of us and see that it looks a bit grim.

'Grim,' however, is a prognosis that I refuse to accept. Here are three little bits of my life that remind me that things can be a little bit better than that if we let them.

"Hold on. Hope hard. It gets better."
-anonymous chalk graffitist, as written on a street in Edmonton on a day when I really needed it

"Quand on se souvenait que tout était sorti des mains et de l’âme de cet homme, sans moyens techniques, on comprenait que les hommes pourraient être aussi efficaces que Dieu dans d’autres domaines que la destruction."
(roughly tranlated: "When I considered that this had all sprung from the hands and from the soul of this one man - without technical aids - , it struck me that men could be as effective as God in domains other than destruction. ")
-Jean Giono, from L'homme qui plantait des arbres/The Man Who Planted Trees

And...
The Change (video)


Happy weekend everyone.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

DISCLAIMER

The point of this blog is to share my experiences and perspectives on my experiences as an OVS, the politics of my world, the wonders and tragedies of my communities, and anything else that finds its way into my average little head. Keyword: "my."

The opinions expressed on this blog represent my own and not those of my employer or any organization I may be affiliated with.
In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time. I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind and a natural result of the experiences that this blog chronicles.
Furthermore, I enjoy reading other peoples' blogs, and commenting on them from time to time. If you run across such comments, the opinions expressed therein also represent my own and not those of my employer or any organization I may be affiliated with, nor should you expect the views in those comments to remain static for all time. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about my formal political leanings and affiliations from the slant of those blogs, with the understanding that those conclusions are probably wrong.

(props to daveberta for inspiration on the wording)