What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
― Howard Zinn
Wonderful, Ruth, especially the call to act upon our lives now, "in defiance of all that is bad around us," rather than waiting for "some grand utopian future." How encouraging it is to be reminded that a small act by a single individual contains at least the possibility of "sending this spending top of a world in a different direction."
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have said it better, Ruth. In fact, I can't imagine having it said in any other/better way!
ReplyDeletei second the quote George points to. I can't help but write it again. perhaps i always need to be reminded that the living is enough. perhaps the living is all there is.
ReplyDelete"The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
what better to note the now than flowers?
xo
erin