A LEAP OF HOPE

      Sorry for the delay, but I have been battling  some sort of viral whatever, and it appeared to be the victor in last night's battle.

     Elie Wiesel, a man who lived through the worst of mankind's deeds, was certainly no stranger to despair. Yet when asked how he could talk of change when even in the twenty first century there was still genocide and mass slaughter, he gave a brilliant answer. " We must hope in spite of despair, because of our despair; we must not give despair the victory.....People speak of a leap in faith. I believe in a leap of hope."

       I take that to mean that even in the darkest of times we must continue to have hope. There is a true story of a well known person being found and arrested, taken away by the Germans for placement into a concentration camp, a place that is hopeless and certainly a place of the devil. He said to his wife that he will be okay, for until now he lived in fear of being captured and now that it has happened, he can now live in hope.

    Mankind is capable of the highest kinds of behavior, just as they are capable of becoming the worst of mankind. To live in hope that we will struggle through, that right will eventually win, that all this is for something, anything, well, that is the highest level of humanity When one can find humanity within oneself in a place of monsters and inhumanity, there is hope, there is room for the leap of hope, that things will get better.

     One of the greatest opponents of hope is the misuse of language, the twisting and turning of words into something other than they are. Mass murder becomes a Final Solution. Genocide becomes a civil war. Lies become the transactional words of the day and the time, and the truth becomes buried under a storm of lies, a flood of lies. Such is the tool of the dictator and such is the tool we are seeing today, right here in America.

     I do not believe that Trump has ever uttered a word of truth if he can find a lie to replace it. He lies about his lies and he twists things around so badly that one just knows, truly knows that this man is demented at the very least and evil, pure evil, at the height of the horror he perpetrates.

     But certainly what occurred now is truly beyond all things. It is the standard sign of dictators who presume to speak for G-d, to claim they know, they just know, that God is on their side and wants the situation to be exactly the way it is. They know. Evidently Sarah Sanders can state with confidence that she knows that G-d wants Donald Trump to be President and do the great job he is doing, a protector of the faith. GAG!. She knows, and now are you reassured?!

     Hope and despair. Two sides of the same coin, just as love and hate are. Passion for giving people hope battles the passion inside people with a hunger for power. The time we are living in is a true example of this conflict. It is a time when it is easier to look away rather than to look towards and try to do something about it. Those who have chosen the wrong passion fall further and further into darkness. How dare anyone throw bleach on a person and wrap a noose around his neck. Are we to turn to lynching again? Have we learned nothing through all the years?  Are we to feel despair rather than hope because we cannot even expect to walk safely down our streets?
     This hatred, this acting on hatred comes from one source - the man at the top- who has accepted the support of extremist bigots and haters and who himself speaks words of hate rather than reason, logic and humanity. Garbage slides downward, yes, but the responsibility for that garbage slide starts at the top and there he is in all his orange glory. He knows his purposes on earth and it is not good. On the other hand, there are those who are always seeking, learning and who ask the wise people of the earth for advice as to what they are supposed to do with all they have been given. The wise men answer that they have been seeking that answer, and that is the answer. To seek, to learn, to ask questions and find answers or try to find those answers, to add to the humanness within oneself.
     There is a  mystical belief that when one dies he must remember his name if his soul is to ascend. Think how many of us could not answer that question for even in life we do not truly know our name, who we are. But if one does the right thing strives for the right things, and lives in hope for humanity despite all the nastiness and cruelty, then one will remember one's name.
     I hope that this posting today give a little hope at least to those out there in countries struggling with dictators, with cruel and nasty people, with executioners and torturers. It is easy to give in to despair. I know, for I have fallen into its grip at times, but we must pull ourselves out by our own collars and remember the hope, the hope that allows even people who have suffered the unthinkable, the unimaginable, to pursue life, rebuild and live. So we too must do.