I am a hopetimist. Not an optimist, a pessimist or a realist – a hopetimist. A person who studies the data, understands the trends, reads the signs of the times and then chooses to believe that the better angels on our shoulders will prevail. A hopetimist is willing to trust in what might go well rather than what might go wrong, and then prepares accordingly. That is to say, a hopetimist is prepared for what might go wrong, but is excited by what might go well.
I have long felt that belief is more potent than knowledge, which may sound a little strange for someone who has worked in education for so long. I am convinced it is true because knowledge, while important, is static, whereas belief is dynamic. Knowledge is necessary because it offers us a foundation and informs us about what might be possible. However, belief helps us to see beyond the possible to the impossible, because belief is always woven with a thread of hope.
Belief is more potent than knowledge.
Belief is what allows us to see through the darkness and it is what lightens our load. As Pope Francis writes in Lumen Fidei, “Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey.”
But all the good that our faith contains, it is also disruptive. If you are the person with power and in control, faith can be very scary. This is, after all, why Jesus was killed, because he disrupted the structures of power that are built on control and security. This is also why faith and hope are often synonymous. Both faith and hope are about the willingness to be lead to the places you would rather not go. The difference is that faith offers that leadership a historical narrative whereas hope is more often rooted in one’s own experiences.
I would like to think there are many hopetimists out there – they just haven’t called themselves that yet. In case you are teetering on the idea, I would like to sign off with the words of another hopetimist: Victoria Stafford, whose words have long inspired me.
“Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—
Not the prudent gates of Optimism,
Which are somewhat narrower.
Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;
Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,
Which creak on shrill and angry hinges
Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna’ be all right.”
But a different, sometimes lonely place,
The place of truth-telling,
About your own soul first of all and its condition.
The place of resistance and defiance,
The piece of ground from which you see the world
Both as it is and as it could be
As it will be;
The place from which you glimpse not only the struggle,
But the joy of the struggle.
And we stand there, all of us, beckoning and calling,
Telling people what we are seeing.
Asking people what they see.”