Hope for the Futures

Simon Sinek has a podcast called A Bit of Optimism. This week he was talking with Brian Collins, an award-winning designer, creative director, and educator. During their conversation, Brian mentioned this quote:

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”
― Rebecca Solnit

Brian went on to say that there is no such thing as “the” future. There are possible “futures”. He said, “All futures are in competition with each other all the time… You have to choose which future you are going to invest in.” Simon and Brian went on to tie these two ideas together. If we take the hope that is an axe and intentionally work toward creating a meaningful future out of the infinite number of possible futures, we have within us to build the world we want to see.

These ideas really struck home with me. Hope is an action! What do we want our future to look like? Do we believe it can be a place of abundance instead of scarcity? A broad path for growth and success for all instead of a narrow lane of privilege for a select few? A world lifted by love and purpose instead of one destroyed by hate or apathy?

Fundamentally, it is up to us! We get to choose which of the many futures will develop over time. And it is an ongoing process. We get to start where we left off each day and move things forward. If we don’t like what surrounds us at the moment, let’s get up and build something better.  South Carolina’s state motto is “While I breathe, I hope”. For me, that takes on new meaning today.