Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re In without Going Crazy. Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
I’m not sure where I found this book. Maybe in a used bookstore? I can see that a previous reader had highlighted numerous sentences. I think maybe the subtitle “How to Face the Mess We’re In without Going Crazy” was what got my attention. I thought I would just flip through it, but, much to my surprise, this book turned out to be more important to me than ever I imagined.
What is Active Hope? Early in the book, the authors define it as: “Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.”.
I’m not sure where I found this book. Maybe in a used bookstore? I can see that a previous reader had highlighted numerous sentences. I think maybe the subtitle “How to Face the Mess We’re In without Going Crazy” was what got my attention. I thought I would just flip through it, but, much to my surprise, this book turned out to be more important to me than ever I imagined.
What is Active Hope? Early in the book, the authors define it as: “Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.”.
The mention of gardening got my attention. I’ve been gardening since I was three or four years old, following my master gardener grandmother around from plant to plant. She taught me the plants’ correct names, how they fit into the scheme of botany, why they were important to us, and how to take care of them. I’ve had a garden almost every year since then. I have a garden right now. It’s doing well.
What is it about Active Hope that applies to a garden? Gardens are a lot of work. You have to prepare the soil, plant the seeds or seedlings, make sure everything gets watered and in the right amounts, and get rid of bothersome intruding plants (in my case, Bermuda grass). And all the while, you have no guarantee that your garden will turn out well. Despite all your work, you garden could be destroyed by a huge storm, a severe drought, or visiting javelinas that tear everything up.
You hope. You hope the garden plants will grow and thrive and produce fruit or vegetables or flowers. There is no way to know for sure that you’ll get what you want, but you have hope. Active Hope. So you keep on working toward your goal. You don’t give up.
I first learned about “global warming” and the coming climate crisis in the 1980s when I was working in the editorial department of a science book publisher. Needless to say, I was alarmed about where this was heading. I began talking about it. But it was pretty clear that people weren’t all that interested. Over time, people began to take it seriously, but then a large segment of society decided that our situation was and is hopeless. They have given up.
In the book, Macy and Johnstone list seven varieties of what they call “resistance” to Active Hope. The first one mentions those who that persist in saying that climate change isn’t all that dangerous. Sadly, there are still those who claim that. The three that got my attention are the final three: 5. It is so upsetting that I prefer not to think about it. 6. I feel paralyzed. I’m aware of the danger but I don’t know what to do. 7. There’s no point in doing anything, since it won’t make any difference.
I hear and read about the seventh “resistance” often from younger generations who have given up. They have no hope at all, much less Active Hope. How do we resist this despair?
Macy’s and Johnstone’s book has a lot of great ideas about how to accept and learn from the pain we experience from the climate crisis, how to begin to “see with new eyes,” and then how to move forward to work on the problem in a state of Active Hope. We don’t know if we’ll be successful but it’s time for us to have Active Hope and go forward. The authors want us to “dare to believe it’s possible,” then build a community of supporters around us, and learn how maintain “energy and enthusiasm.”
And for the record, there are a lot of us who haven’t given up, who are working toward caring for our precious Earth, and who have Active Hope.
This is a call to action to join them, to join us. This is a call to Active Hope.
What is it about Active Hope that applies to a garden? Gardens are a lot of work. You have to prepare the soil, plant the seeds or seedlings, make sure everything gets watered and in the right amounts, and get rid of bothersome intruding plants (in my case, Bermuda grass). And all the while, you have no guarantee that your garden will turn out well. Despite all your work, you garden could be destroyed by a huge storm, a severe drought, or visiting javelinas that tear everything up.
You hope. You hope the garden plants will grow and thrive and produce fruit or vegetables or flowers. There is no way to know for sure that you’ll get what you want, but you have hope. Active Hope. So you keep on working toward your goal. You don’t give up.
I first learned about “global warming” and the coming climate crisis in the 1980s when I was working in the editorial department of a science book publisher. Needless to say, I was alarmed about where this was heading. I began talking about it. But it was pretty clear that people weren’t all that interested. Over time, people began to take it seriously, but then a large segment of society decided that our situation was and is hopeless. They have given up.
In the book, Macy and Johnstone list seven varieties of what they call “resistance” to Active Hope. The first one mentions those who that persist in saying that climate change isn’t all that dangerous. Sadly, there are still those who claim that. The three that got my attention are the final three: 5. It is so upsetting that I prefer not to think about it. 6. I feel paralyzed. I’m aware of the danger but I don’t know what to do. 7. There’s no point in doing anything, since it won’t make any difference.
I hear and read about the seventh “resistance” often from younger generations who have given up. They have no hope at all, much less Active Hope. How do we resist this despair?
Macy’s and Johnstone’s book has a lot of great ideas about how to accept and learn from the pain we experience from the climate crisis, how to begin to “see with new eyes,” and then how to move forward to work on the problem in a state of Active Hope. We don’t know if we’ll be successful but it’s time for us to have Active Hope and go forward. The authors want us to “dare to believe it’s possible,” then build a community of supporters around us, and learn how maintain “energy and enthusiasm.”
And for the record, there are a lot of us who haven’t given up, who are working toward caring for our precious Earth, and who have Active Hope.
This is a call to action to join them, to join us. This is a call to Active Hope.
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