a time for hope

So much has happened…

After taking our brief annual respite — and hearing from multiple articulate, insightful Guest Writers — we have much to discuss. What a fast moving month! Amid a backdrop of already established uncertainty, we witnessed an August full of momentous events…

  • The protests surrounding the tragic experiences of George Floyd and Jacob Blake…
  • Our response, heartache, assessment, and the new details that continue to emerge…
  • The destruction of Portland and Kenosha…
  • The violence, riots and unrest…
  • The political correctness/incorrectness/agenda/something that only allows us to use one word and maybe not another…
  • The massive explosion in Beirut, killing at least 190 persons, injuring thousands more…
  • Earthquakes — across the globe in Indonesia, the Philippines, and more  — and here at home near Sparta, North Carolina — the largest quake in the state since 1916…
  • Fires in California… “I’m essentially at a loss for words to describe the scope of the lightning-sparked fire outbreak that has rapidly evolved in Northern California — even in the context of the extraordinary fires of recent years. It’s truly astonishing,” said UCLA scientist, Daniel Swain…
  • Stormy, unwelcome visits from Isaias, Laura, and Marco…
  • The intentional stoppage of sports — for multiple reasons… 
  • “Cancel culture,” in full swing…
  • The party’s conventions…
  • The politics… meh… and the games people play… 
  • The election focus — only 62 days away — and the impending choice between two candidates — a choice unfortunately, with all due respect, which in only my semi-humble-perhaps-inaccurate opinion, seems between one who doesn’t know how to talk and one who talks too much…
  • The death of the talented American actor, Chadwick Boseman, known for portraying the Black Panther, James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and Thurgood Marshall (and whose family’s tweet announcing his death quickly became the most “liked” tweet in history)…
  • And all of the above occurring in this still unsettling pandemic, with no one seemingly knowing always, exactly the best way to respond.

Did I mention the uncertainty?

We will resist making the uncertain certain because we can’t.

Let me not be a depressor of your day. In fact, while much of the above has pierced our peace and been a source of significant concern, I contend this is a huge time for hope.

“Hope?” you say.

Indeed. But it matters what we’re hoping in. Are we hoping and finding our peace in something that’s constant? Or in something rather that changes routinely or depends most on who else adheres to like thinking?

We will discuss all that and more — and certainly much of the above — even amid these uncertain times.

So with one more sweet shout out to our awesome Guest Writers, it’s great to be back… let’s talk! Let’s continue on this journey together, as we’ve got stories to share, issues to unpack, pages to fill. But let us also resist culture’s ever-increasing lure to be disrespectful to the different… 

For the record, there’s no hope in that. No peace nor good either.

Respectfully…

AR