“And I’ll Give You Hope, When Hope is Hard to Find”
Vaclav Havel – the Czech poet, activist, and former President – once wrote, “Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope is not a prognostication – it’s an orientation of the spirit. Hope… is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good…. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is hope that gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now. In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about hope these days as I hear the troubling news about a place so far away, yet so close to my heart. Burundi, a small country in East Africa, is currently experiencing deadly politically-motivated violence that has left its population fearful and insecure. It’s the latest wave in a recurring cycle of political and ethnic violence that the people of Burundi have suffered from since the country’s independence over 50 years ago. Back in the 90s, hundreds of thousands were killed. And now once again, people are dying, being thrown into jail, or forced to flee the country. There are clear reasons why this is happening, especially the president’s staying in power after completing his two terms in office (the maximum allowed under the constitution). But the bottom line is that innocent men, women, and children are suffering, and right now there’s no end in sight.
I have a personal connection to Burundi, so the sad situation there resonates particularly strongly for me. In 2013, More