ALL THE LITTLE HOPES

  The title is the name of a recent novel that appears to express the human condition around the world. For the most part, the past two years have extinguished many of the larger dreams of people. The new hopes and dreams? Much smaller in scope yet seemingly more difficult to achieve. 

Here is a litany of some of the most common phrases heard around the world, and particularly here in the USA. They echo in calls to calling centers. They resonate in calls with office personnel. They resound in daily meetings and conversations, in person or virtual. "Be safe." "Stay safe." "Have you vaccinated?" "Did you get the booster?" "Put on your mask."

College graduates are graduating and not finding the jobs for their prime income earning years and their future and the futures of their families - here or to be - are endangered. All the while the politicians work to score points rather than do anything constructive. Manchin flaunts his power just as wrongly as did McConnell in his "moment of glory". Forgotten are those who would rather get a job with possibilities, with the power to place food on a table and a roof  over the heads of one's children than continue to live on a benefit that is always running out. Then what?

There is an old maxim that supports the benefit of teaching, providing one with means to earning a living, supporting oneself. Teach one to fish and there is food for a lifetime, rather than simply throw him a fish for the one meal. Far better for the economy. Far better for the dignity of the one needing  help. Far better for building futures. Far, far better to spend the money in training, in repair of infrastructure, in education, in health care, than in simple welfare that does not do the trick for the long run.

Time after time it has been shown that only huge injections of beneficial funds with long term consequences are the best way to drag a country out of an economic dip, out of low morale environments. Yet the GOP refuses to admit this, hanging on to their mulish opposition based on a deranged man's ragged shouts to "First Fix 2020." They went along with his gift to the rich in tax relief, all the while pinching the dreams of those left to struggle through as their government abandoned them. Now the Democrats are left with a thin, very perilous uncertain majority, ironically one threatened by members within their own party. All the little hopes? How? Where? When?

Instead of laying blame of the war's catastrophic long overdue ending and the mess left by Trump to his successor to fix in a hostile environment, why not cooperate, concentrate on rescuing the rest of that poor country that wants out! The women who are already being beaten, forced back into abusive homes, shrouded in those damned burquas. Lest you think that this misogynistic attitude lives only there, I refer you to Texas and other benighted states that wish to turn back the clock centuries with regard to women. No, we are not free of fault in the return of this dangerous thinking elsewhere, nor  absolved of any blame in the attempt to return women into the status of property of men, with little to no power to protect themselves, their bodies, their decisions, their children, their future, their lives. All the big hopes and dreams begin to shrink into far less than even little hopes as the light of their future dims.

Confusion reigns supreme in society. Be safe? Yes, but how? Are masks good or not? Do we need particular masks? The answers change on a daily basis. Are the scientists to blame? Yes and no. This is a new situation, a crazed pandemic with no plans to retire quietly. With the Greek alphabet crashing upon us - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Mu and where does it end? Does it indeed end? Will we have any little ones left at that point as the Delta variant seems to target that age bracket more or is it that they have no vaccine. Where and what and who will supply the answers? How will they combat the ignorance that is 'gifting' us with over 150,000 daily new cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths a day. Better to overdose on an animal deworming drug than wear a mask and get a shot or two? What the hell is the matter with people?

Our conditions of life, our morale, our crushed dreams and big hopes are reflected in the titles of new novels and in their content. A Slow Fire Burning. If the Shoe Fits. Places that stand for safety and warmth are turn into places of horror and death, of uncertainty. Homes. Libraries, Bookshops. Small towns. Vacation houses. Beautiful forests. The kind, seemingly harmless neighbor - truly a monster. The cure? Soppy, happy ever after ending books that have little connection to reality, and join the fantasy novels that are ever more popular. Heroes that rescue us, yet have huge feet of clay. Nothing is left untouched, unspoiled, as dreams are the favorite targets of today's literati. People turn to fantasy when reality sucks!! Lesson learned yet? Apparently not. When? Got me.

I will take refuge in my wood, my paint. I will take refuge in my historical novels and studies, books with a serious content. I will read the thrillers and mysteries I enjoy and hope all the while that somewhere out there is not a future serial killer planning to model his own behavior on that of the monster - the human monster - of that book. And I will delve through the TV listings, the streaming contents, to find relief in the available programs.

 Most of all, I will take a break when basking in the love and warmth of friends and families, in celebrating the happy moments which do occur, and in encouraging the kids to continue to dream, to indeed fix the broken world we have given them, to build a future. If we start out, even with small steps, on a road which could lead to big hopes, then why not? Let us get on with it. Every little inch gained is a positive inch, a slightly bigger hope, a safer kitchen, a safer library, a safer, better world. A world of big hopes and big dreams.

We can learn the lesson, ake encouragement from an iconic children's figure - Bob the Builder.

"Can we do it? Yes, we can!"