Author’s image: Boy on Lake Echternach
This young boy leaped into the future, convinced he will succeed.
If our grandmothers, their grandfathers and all our ancestors before them were not optimistic, we would simply not be here. You and I would not exist in all this chaos and disfunction, pain and joy. They continued the struggle for a better world, for everyone.
Without their optimism, there would be no water in the rivers, no trees in the forests, no vegetables and fruits in the markets. We would not have books to read, ideas to grapple with, nor battles to win. We are here because our ancestors were absolutely sure that the future could be better than the present.
It is easy to look back at yesterday and yearn for times when we were younger, healthier perhaps, freer perhaps, or more loved and cared for, perhaps. But what if we carry time forward? What if we imagine a better and more equitable future for those who we do not yet know, and for those who we will never meet?
To be optimistic about the present/future is not to passively imagine a time. It is to be sure that there will be free health care for every new born child until the end of life, education and job opportunities, housing, food and entertainment for all. This is the work for us, today. This is the job of our political leaders, our community leaders, our families and our respected friends.
What if everyone was entitled to a home, a place to live and play, enjoyment for the body and the mind, irrespective of income? In pockets, they exist. Leaders in communities fought, together, with a moral compass, to build pockets of peace. Where nation states have come together to create their own destinies, there has been a cost; and the cost continues to be borne by those least able.
This month of June has been one of recognition, without reparation for the injustices of the past; in Southern Africa, Central, East, West and North Africa. In the Caribbean, in Latin America, in Asia and among indigenous peoples all around the world. The Caribbean nations have come together to create a new slavery reparations manifesto as war continues to be waged in vast areas within countries across the world; Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, The Sahel, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, Democratic Republic of the Congo and others unreported and forgotten.
I do not know if this world in crisis will change the course of history towards a different and better future. Or, if we are capable of the optimism required to work towards forging a future that is very different from this present? Our ancestors were able to do so, with immeasurable sacrifice. So … where is our optimism?
If you are in Luxembourg, please join Stella and I with Alba and Cyriel, of the Panafro Book Club, in conversation on “Writing Black Feminism”.
3:30pm on Saturday 18 July at the CiTiM (Centre d’information Tiers Monde) at their new library, 55 Avenue de la Liberté, L-1931, Gare, Luxembourg – Metro – Place de Paris
Patricia Angoy 
A beautiful and timely question Patricia! Thank you for continuing to ask the kinds of questions that invite us for reflection. For me, optimism isn’t about certainty, it’s about choosing to keep building, contributing, and believing that our actions still matter.
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Guilia, I love that phrase “choosing to keep building, contributing and believing”. All so very true. Thank you!
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at the age of 10 I had received my first bicycle for my birthday 🎈🎂 so I was on the streets trying to ride.
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Hello Maria James, I can just imagine you on your shiny new bicycle!
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Patricia, Thank you for such a hopeful message and for the reminder to the rest of us of the work to be done to ensure the future that you envision. I wish I could be in Luxembourg on July 18!
Hildy
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Hello Hildy, you will be in spirit and I’ll send you the recording afterwards. Thanks for reading the blog and interacting with us all.
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Hello Hildy, you will be in spirit. We will record the conversation and I’ll share it with you. Thanks for being here.
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Optimism! Leaping! I strongly believe that optimism and hope save lives everyday. Growing up, we were hungry but optimistic young refugees. There was a refugee student program called “World University Service of Canada” [WUSC]. It sponsored refugee students to Canada. The joy you noticed in the faces of your neighbors when their daughter got selected , gave you endurance. Freedom fighters, abolitionists, activists, writers, singers, historians, schools, hospitals, climate change advocates. All of these events or advocates only make sense for the future. The promise of mortality that is deeply embedded in every breath we take, should encourage us to seek immortality. Ideas, work, that will outlive us.
As always, thank you very much for your blog!
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Francisco, thank you for linking the two; optimism and hope. I know from what you have experienced that there was optimism in your family from the killing fields in Rwanda to where you are today, the son of a very optimistic and courageous mother and father. Thank you also for naming those areas where optimism is crucial to our very existence.
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Hi Patricia, Where is your optimism? What an excellent question. I’ve been searching for mine recently; I know it’s around here somewhere.
I immediately think of Martin Luther King saying that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. I’m not convinced, frankly. Perhaps I haven’t been around “long” enough. There are intransigent commercial forces that spend billions, to earn trillions, in a race to the bottom of our brainstem. The arc of their moral universe bends toward profit unencumbered by the prefrontal cortex.
There are governmental forces, inextricably tied to the commercial, whose arc bends toward autocracy even while espousing democracy. They thrive only when we are unencumbered by critical thinking; a commodity that has no electoral value. Hitler was, after all, elected. I received an email today from the US Social Security Administration disturbingly suggesting I feel gratitude to the boy president for all they’ve done on my behalf when it’s an irrefutable fact he and his sycophants have tried their best to diminish the amount of MY money I receive in retirement.
I once was removed from jury duty when I claimed that we do not conduct our daily lives within a “system” of justice, although delusion seems rampant from the highest to lowest. A justice “system” is a myth. We conduct our daily lives within a processing system which is only “just” in the eyes of the winner. This system is “just” at best 50% of the time and at worst, much, much less. Thank you, you can go now, were the last words I heard.
And then we have Jim Stockdale. “The Stockdale Paradox is a concept that emphasizes the importance of maintaining unwavering faith in eventual success while simultaneously confronting the harsh realities of one’s current situation. This approach was derived from Admiral James Stockdale’s experiences as a prisoner of war, where he observed that those who survived best were neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic, but rather realistic about their circumstances while believing they would ultimately prevail.”
The moral arc of the universe toward or away from justice is, nonetheless, dynamic. We only can bend ourselves and influence the remainder.
HabitShift Larry Birckhead (778) 628 – 9470 http://www.habitshift.com
The Habit Shift Ebook: Change is constant. The wise get good at it.
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Hello Larry,
Thank you for your contribution to the blog. So much to think about and it is true that one cannot always hold optimism at the forefront of the mind but I can try. I am here against the odds, my parents wanting a son after having three daughters … but here I am and still going strong. There is optimism as I navigate my way through the day-to-day of life despite all the obstacles, resistance and barriers. The same is true for everyone else.
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Hi Patricia, love your blog.
I really like your choice of image. The boy mid-leap is such a powerful visual metaphor for optimism, not only capturing the courage to launch into the unknown with optimism but also with confidence, hope and possibility.
It also made me think about the children themselves. Perhaps the photograph doesn’t just symbolise ‘leaping into the future’; it reminds us that we have much to learn from children about how to approach the future. I try to never stop appreciating the opportunities we have to learn from children every day. They possess a remarkable capacity to embrace uncertainty with curiosity rather than fear, to bounce back from setbacks, to imagine possibilities where adults often see obstacles, and to take leaps of faith without being constrained by past experiences.
As educators, maybe our role is not only to prepare children for the unknown, but also to preserve and nurture the optimism, wonder and fearlessness they so naturally bring to it. There is something wonderfully hopeful in being reminded that the future belongs to those who are willing to leap.
Good luck with your session – I am sure it will be inspiring and uplifting.
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Dear Pauline,
Thank you for reminding me, and of course other readers of this blog, of the role we play as educators in preserving and encouraging young children to be their true selves. Like you, I learn so much from those I have worked with and I continue to do so – on buses, trains, in playgrounds and in their homes where children live their fearless lives, full of wonder and curiosity. The future is so present in their lives and their ability to trust that things will “work out” and they will be OK.
Thanks for your good wishes for the session next week. Wishing you a fearless summer!
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