We are all in the gutter, but some us are looking at the stars
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere’s Fan
We have our present trials. That can’t be changed. What matters is the light of our hope. The stars that guide us inspire the work we do today on change.
We have no shortage of existential dread. We are in Wilde’s gutter together and it is most definitely raining. No amount of hand-wringing, blame-shifting or delusion is going to keep us dry.
The challenge for each of us is to find, to cling to and to fight for our hope, that glimmer of light in the distant stars. We need to ‘live right in it, under its roof’.
The very least you do in your life
Barbara Kingsolver
is figure out what you hope for.
And the most you can do is live inside that hope.
Not admire it from a distance
but live right in it, under its roof.
Living Kingsolver’s admonition involves finding a way each day to work towards that distant star. The progress may be minute but step by step we will get there.
Knowing that hope and navigating by its distant star, there will come progress. That hope will pick you up and carry you through the times when the gutter becomes a drain and the drain feels like a storm water carrying you out to sea. Keep working towards the star. Effort and time accumulate and can shift the centre of your challenges to suit you.
As long as you stay put year after year,
Ha Jin, A Center
eventually you will find a world
beginning to revolve around you.
When it feels darkest and most doubtful, remind yourself of what brings you hope. There is purpose, protection and comfort in working to that distant goal.
