Hope is an intensely personal form of expression, sometimes shared by thousands for the same goal, yet unique in origin to each person. My own hope flourishes when I see “stupid” acts of kindness in the world. These altruistic anomalies are not governed by reason. They prove the future is uncertain in a powerfully positive way. I was reminded of the power of random kindness when I found this video in my Facebook feed a few weeks ago:
Something stronger than the manipulation or greed is working behind the (Anthropo) scenes. This strength of hope, of stupid kindness, courses through bustling city sidewalks and protesting crowds, unwilling to allow evil to win every battle. For this reason alone, the world remains today.
The very existence of this world is a cause for hope in the Anthropocene. Brave individuals have fought battle after to battle to inch towards the goal of a healthy planet. Our Earth is not the healthiest it has ever been. It has been cleaner and stronger. However, we have never been better equipped to remedy our errors as a society. We need hope in ourselves to do so.
People will call us stupid, unreasonable, and naive. As a lifelong people-pleaser, I have a hard time pushing past these labels. Yet we, the informed and willing members of society, must push back. We must search for validity in challenges and solutions too unconventional for others. We must be stupidly kind, both to each other and to the planet. These radical acts of conviction will produce even more hope in the world. As hope and conviction intertwine in a duo of daring environmentalism, greed cannot stand a chance.
