"I'm going to make a big claim: we can't do anything about the things that bring us down if we are oppressed and depressed by them. We have to have hope. We need to be hopeful creatures in order to live. No matter how much events seem to point towards despair, telling us to be pessimistic, I think we have to find strategies and techniques to be hopeful."
"Days are where we live. Like Larkin, I'm of the view that this day is where and how we live. We live day by day, taking one day at a time, living from day to day. It's true, of course, that our thoughts break out of the capsule of the day by going back into memories and forwards into possible happenings, but my argument here is that we live those emotions in the now, in the day. There's nowhere else to live them."
We live in hard times with many unresolved problems and worsening conditions locally, nationally, and globally. Oppression and depression prevent effective action against these problems, so hope is essential for survival and agency. People must cultivate hope through strategies and techniques that enable persistence. Living day by day centers life in the present; memories and future imaginings are experienced within the now. The day contains winding roads, faded signs, and fragments of past life that surface mentally. Emphasizing the present and finding reasons to go on allows continued engagement despite despair and pessimistic signals.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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