KEEP YOUR HOPE ALIVE

ZADIE SMITH, IN HER WONDERFUL NOVEL N-W, has one of her characters say: “Sometimes hope is exhausting.” That is so true, and we too often forget that fact. But so is having no idea if your house will be bombed today or tomorrow; or where you can find some food to feed your family; or the reality that grief may suddenly visit your very being. All of which has been especially true all over the world last year, and remains even more a part of the painful reality of 2017. So too is the truth that exhaustion, as hard to live with as it is, is a human struggle that we cannot let defeat us. If we do than we become nothing – long before our own regular demise. So we all must realize at the start of a new years that exhaustion can also be a disastrous opportunity to once again – fire up our hope!