Hopesgiving 2016

This year I'm giving hope.

I know it's blasphemous on this, America's fairy tale day,
where we celebrate a highly fictionalized meal
inspired by cliches of Native Americans and transplanted Europeans.

But this year I'm giving hope.

There is a time and a place to hearken back to the past,
to so easily learn the lessons that our ancestors had to learn the hard way,
through mistakes and pain,  suffering and death.

And yet,
we insist on doubting past lessons,
fancying ourselves so evolved, so modern, so much MORE
than we were before.

Another fairy tale I'm afraid,
especially on this day.

So this year I'm giving hope.

I'm giving hope for the hopeless,
the fighters of unbalanced battles waged for all the right reasons.

I'm giving hope for the frightened,
who can't help but see a future of violence and fear
creeping ever so near.

I'm giving hope for the suffering millions
who somehow manage to live day by day
through hardships and horrors, deep and vast
and on so many levels preventable.

I'm giving hope for those with whom I disagree,
those I cannot  understand.  Those who were
willingly or unwillingly coerced or convinced
to misplace their trust and distrust their better selves.

I'm giving hope for our fragile, shivering planet
that daily we abuse and use and consume,
even now doubting the evidence that is roaring before us.

I'm giving hope.

Thankfulness is not the task of a single day,
nor is generosity and charity, love and respect.

Thankfulness is the core of  a daily existence built on actions and words.

But hope,
hope is much more fragile,
much harder to sustain and so easily destroyed.

So this year,
especially this year,
I'm giving  hope.