Naive Hope; Hopeful Naïveté

My naive hope, 

my hopeful naïveté 

lay

in my unfailing

knowledge and

firm belief in:

“how could it 

not be so; how could

it be other?”

Not simply that the

wave of all humankind

would rise and fall

together in its devotion

but that it would

do so because

it was convinced;

it did believe, it cried 

with me in unison:

“how could it 

not be so; how could

it be other?”

When our scientists and

journalists, prophets and

artists show us the latest

on climate change, or poverty,

on systemic inequities, biases,

and injustices, on abuse, addiction,

and human trafficking I always

felt that the nature of solid research

and earnest discoveries would

open a space in each of us to say:

“how could it 

not be so; how could

it be other?”

I had no way of sussing

the contrarian view that

was an inclination to refute,

a raison d’être of defiance,

a psychic coalition of denial

in the soul that our social

anger and unrest could

produce.  A proclivity to name

truth as alternative facts.

A cellular inclination toward

opposition, resistance, and non-

compliance has evolved in us

and metastasized in senseless 

strings of refusals, rebuttals, 

and refutals from the historic

turmoil that cascaded out from

the dumping of tea in the harbor,

and the countless rightings of the

oppressions of empire that swarmed

across the earth and seethed and

saturated deep into our core.

We became stuck in our adversarial 

pursuits.  Our coping became our norm 

until we railed against the truth.  We 

became unable to sustain our decisions 

for the welfare of the common good.  

Instead we rally around the theatrics of bravado and greed; never quite able to say

enough.  Never quite able to regain our

center.  Slavery, industry, human and civil

rights confused us and our homeostatic 

capabilities to come round right.  Like

a mob kicking a man on the ground, we

have swum out beyond the waves of reason.

How might we sing together and chant

the refrain:

“how could it 

not be so; how could

it be other?”

If we may learn how, perhaps we may

stem the climate disaster, inequality, and

inequity; the racism and the long thread

of biases and hate that run on like a 

email gone awry and astray.  

I look for my hope to be fulfilled;

my naïveté to come to pass - that

we would long to live as sisters, be

hungry to live as brothers and plant 

the garden of common good; harvest

the bounty of inclusivity, grow the

rows of equality, and compost the 

remains into a love rich soil of our

tomorrows.