...there has to be...

good smile at the end, tom.

☀

“Hope and optimism are different.

Optimism tends to be based on the notion

that there's enough evidence out there to

believe things are gonna be better,

much more rational, deeply secular,

whereas hope looks at the evidence and says,

'It doesn't look good at all. Doesn't look good at all. Gonna go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against the odds,

no guarantee whatsoever.'

That's hope.

I'm a prisoner of hope, though.

Gonna die a prisoner of hope.”
― Cornel West 

one of the richest sharings of gratitude, humanity,
and wisdom in this interview, imo.
it's funny too, they have a good rapport.

some gems from Brother West, who considers himself 'blessed to have been invited to the banquet of life'

(much more enjoyable to listen to him,

he has a great laugh and spirit):

Blessed assurance, making a leap of faith,

stepping out on nothing

and landing on something...

He who has never despaired has never lived.

I make despair and catastrophe constant companions,

but I just don't allow despair to have the last word...

Ancestral appreciation,

feeling the love at your back...

 Persevering is the best we do,

just gonna love my way through the darkness...

Ritual has a role to play,

it's nice to stop everyday life

and have moments of deep meaning...

great reminders about cash,

an instrument for some greater cause, not an end...

and the legacy of Martin Luther King,

who also spoke of a religion based on being

maladjusted to greed, concerned about fairness,

maladjusted to indifference,
concerned about compassion,

and maladjusted to fear.
Instead it's courageous and tries to be hopeful...

☀

ours is in the trying, the rest is not our business.

-T.S. Eliot