Hopeful

The Mystery within...

I have been feeling hopeful this past week and it feels good.  These lines from Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer, “Above All Trust in the Slow Work of God,” have revisited me:

We are impatient of being on the way

to something unknown,

something new.

Yet it is the law of all progress that is made

by passing through some stages of instability

and that may take a very long time.

I was reminded of the Priest/Paleontologist’s prayer as I listen to Krista Tippitt’s On Being guests John Haidt, a Social Psychologist, and Melvin Konner, a Biological Anthropologist, as they discussed “Capitalism and Moral Evolution.”  Both are accustomed to taking the long view when it comes to human progress.  It was hopeful to hear the ironic truth that capitalism actually generates liberal values.  Also hopeful was hearing today’s exploitive nature of capitalism is generating a strong push to care for the other, our environment, and is helping us understand how deeply connected we are to everyone and everything.

My November 4, 2013 blog, “Life in a Pinball Machine,” featured the Evolutionary Biologist, David Sloan Wilson, who compared us to pinballs.  It fit with his definition that evolution is about randomness, differences and change.  It all has to do with how we react to what we bump into in life.  Exploitive capitalism could remain alive and well.  It all depends on how we react to it.  Instead of being fearful of the divisiveness that exists today it helps to look at it as an escalating struggle toward the betterment of all.  And that may take a very long time.

Hope is about struggle.  Even disasters were said to have the ability to bring out the best in us and create positive evolutionary change.  My memoire, “God Never Hurries,” tells of my personal struggle and evolution through caring for my mother with Alzheimer’s disease.  It led me to reflect on the challenges in each day, find my voice, and learn good self-care.

What if we all reflected on the challenges in each day, find our voice, and learn how to care for others as well as ourselves?