In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter, war spreading, families dying, the world in danger, I walk the rocky hillside, throwing clover.
– Wendell Barry “February 2, 1968” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
I believe the title of Berry’s poem refers to the Tet Offensive . . . a dark time in history. In times of violence and war it may feel impossible to muster any hope, but it, like the clover, is needed then – like now – more than ever.
On Optimism and Pessimism
(as opposed to authentic Hope)
An optimist says, in effect, “Don’t worry, it’s going to turn out all right.” A pessimist says, “It’s going down the drain and there’s nothing you can do about it” Both get us off the hook. Our place is on the hook. Whether things turn out for the better depends on what we do. We ought not spend our time masterminding the future, but recognize our marching order: to do the best we can for history and the planet. One of my favorite prayers was written by a 9-year old. His mother found it scribbled on a note beside his bed, “Dear God, I’m doing the best I can.”
-Huston Smith in “Datebook”, San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 2009
If what we need is here within creation, this does not mean that the presence of God will suddenly become obvious to us. As we have already seen, though God is in all things and underpins them as their animating source and destiny, at the same time we must admit that God is not to be reduced to or identified with anything in creation. God is everywhere andnowhere at the same time. God is transcendent.
– The Dark Night of the Soil an essay in Wendell Berry and Religion, edited by Joel James Shuman and L. Roger Owens
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
OPreach 