One of the aspects of Hope in the dark that makes hope for what can be bubble up within like champagne bubbles, is this:
”So the threads of ideas weave around the world and through the decades and centuries.”
How it all is entwined, how nothing stands alone, but rather, through visible or invisible threads are linked, back and forth, crossing the expanse of time and space, in a web. Weaving us together. All of us; the living, and those long since turned back into start dust, all a part of the tapestry of life.
The arcs that oftentimes are longer, much longer, than what we believe them to be. (If we think that way at all… I know I didn’t use to, I’m certain I am not alone in that.) Our perspective often, most understandably, but perhaps not wise, that of a human – that is, looking at what is done, over a few weeks, perhaps years. Seldom going to far as to look at what can be done over a few decades or our entire life span? Perhaps that comes first with age – looking back, reverse engineering our path, linking significant events and decisions together. And then missing what can be done when we string lives together, putting life time to life time, making the arcs of history cross the universe in multiple dimensions.
I can vote. Of course I can vote. Why wouldn’t I?
Well, if not for the suffragette movement, it might not be such a matter-of-fact statement to make, right?
There are still a few countries in the world where female votes is not allowed, but the arcs of history will get to them to. Of that I am certain. When – I don’t know, but That it will occur, that I don’t hesitate on.
And if not for the evolution of democracy, perhaps but a few of us would have the right to make our voices heard at all, let alone to cast a vote, regardless of gender, more a matter of privilege and riches, than anything else.
”Whatever else the Arab Spring was, it’s an extraordinary example of how unpredictable change is and how potent popular power can be. And five years on, it’s too soon to draw conclusions about what it all meant.”
It did not happen as a odd occurrence unlinked to what went before it. Not at all. Many are the possible arcs of history that had a direct correlation to the Arab Spring. And like Rebecca Solnit states – who knows what might come of it? Like Zhou En-Lai, high-ranking member of Chairman Mao’s government said when asked of his opinion on the French Revolution: “Too soon to tell.”
I wonder if it always is? Or perhaps: Feel free to express an opinion but never loose sight of the threads of ideas, weaving around the world, through decades and centuries, spreading hope for what can be, one day.
#Blogg100 challenge in 2017 – post number 14 of 100.
The book “Hope in the dark” by Rebecca Solnit.
English posts here, Swedish at herothecoach.com.