EILEEN ADLER

Feeling hopeful means a person possesses a feeling of “inspiring optimism about a future event,” or stretching this further, a person may feel confidence, positivity, or even experience a feeling of lightness, buoyancy that something good is coming.

In an interview on the podcast On Being, hosted by Krista Tippet, I listened to an enriching conversation on December 2, 2020 with Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. His thoughts on hope: “I think hope is our superpower. Hope is the thing that gets you to stand up, when others say, “Sit down.” It’s the thing that gets you to speak, when others say, “Be quiet.”  Later, explaining “that if we allow ourselves to become hopeless, we become part of the problem.” Sometimes it takes courage to stand up, to speak up, to love—to be who you want to be for the people you care about.  

             Care partners and care receivers can do better, learn from a momentary lapse, recognize the foibles, apologize if that is the right thing to do, and move forward. Each person is responsible for putting forth their best effort now, this moment, this day. The opportunity offers us hope, take hold of it each day.

Life Lesson: Before he became president, then Senator Barack Obama wrote The Audacity of Hope explaining to Oprah Winfrey in July 2004, “We can do better." To clarify in my mind, audacity is defined as boldness, even a disregard for “same-old, same-old,” the firm belief that change can be made - chutzpah, gall, presumption, temerity, nerve, the list continues. Care partners and care receivers must hold on to their audacity of hope and believe the words from Martin Luther King, Jr, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” 

 

Listen to the full conversation here:  ‎On Being with Krista Tippett: Bryan Stevenson — Love is the Motive on Apple Podcasts