“Hope is not the certainty that things will turn out as we wish, [but] is the conviction that some things are worth doing, no matter how they turn out.”
— Václav Havel
While visiting our daughter in Juneau Alaska last week we did a bit of hiking. Several hikes took us past waterways teaming with exhausted and battered salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn. They were offering the last of their body and soul to birth a new generation. To use the vernacular—they were becoming good ancestors. It was both painful and inspiring to watch these once beautiful and strong creatures desperately dying to ensure another generation would live.
On the plane ride home, I watched the movie, One Life, based on the extraordinary rescue of 669 children, most of them Jews, from Czechoslovakia just as WWII was beginning. Nicky Winton, who is played by Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn, was a 29-year-old stock broker in England who became obsessed with saving them. An agnostic Jew whose mother and father had been refugees, Nicky could not rest until he brought as many of them as possible safely into the homes of English families.
It was a daunting task, which had a frightening urgency as Hitler was already displacing and breaking up Jewish families. Nicky’s success was not at all assured due to the many and various obstacles for such an undertaking. Yet his efforts, many generations later, have reached some 15,000 individuals when the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of the original 669 rescued are considered.
Nicky swam upstream with the kind of “doing hope” that turns terrible odds into salvation for generations to come. We need such hope now.
Two more related inspiring resources emerged once I returned home last weekend:
The Václav Havel quote above came from a recent Faith Matters interview with a favorite of mine, Brian McLaren. He offers some profound observations about our current challenges and suggestions on how to navigate these difficult political, religious, and environmental waters.
About the same time, a friend sent me David Brooks most recent Aspen Ideas talk. It contains parallel ideas and recommendations. Interestingly, these two brilliant individuals come from very different walks of life. One of the ideas David mentions is based on a quote from the late Jonathan Sacks: “A contract is a transaction. A covenant is a relationship. Or to put it slightly differently: a contract is about interests. A covenant is about identity. It is about you and me coming together to form an ‘Us’. That is why contracts benefit, but covenants transform.”
A few years ago, one of my daughters-in-law became a US citizen. I was moved as I attended the ceremony having witnessed the significant effort she made to enter into this “covenantal” relationship with her new country. The Rabbi Sacks quote also helped me reframe in a more resonate way LDS President Nelson’s call to enter in and stay on the covenant path. At a time when so much is pulling us away from relationship with others due to our differences, anger, and enmity, it is an important reminder for me that Jesus Christ asked us to remain in a covenantal relationship of love with God, our neighbors, and even our enemies. The “Us” is so much more inclusive than our natural tribalistic tendencies move us towards. Despite being irreligious and agnostic, Nicky felt this deeply and acted heroically.
While I don’t post much on social media, I struggle with what I see happening to the Palestinians in Gaza. The scale of their suffering is monumental. I struggle with what I understand is happening to the Israeli hostages, their families, and what happened to all those who were slaughtered on October 7. And there is Ukraine. Syria, and countless other places of suffering with some of our “Us” seeking refuge. And then there is the animosity among “Us” in our political parties that we can inject more kindness and hope into with every interaction we have within and without our tribal groups.
I hope you’ll take the time to watch the movie and be as inspired as I was by Nicky Linton, as well as the Faith Matters interview and the Aspen Ideas talk. Much to encourage us and sustain an “act-full” hope as we swim upstream in these troubled waters.
