Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope: How to Face
the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy.
To read deeply in ecology without having this book on hand
would be like deep-fat frying without a fire extinguisher nearby. Tremendously foolhardy.
To examine and consider the threats to life on Earth without
evasion or self-delusion can be tremendously painful, frustrating and
overwhelming. If you’re feeling
optimistic – it may be that you are not paying much attention.
I remember finishing another entirely essential book --
“Wasted Word” by Rob Hengeveld -- and thinking, “OK, so there’s probably not
going to be a future.” I wasn’t sure how
I was going to be able to function. I didn’t
know how to go on.
That’s what this book is for. Feeling overwhelmed or hopeless about the
crisis facing life on Earth? Wondering
how your life or anything you might do could make a molehill’s amount of
difference? Here is your book.
A lot of people think that facing our troubles, as
individuals or as a planet, means maintaining some kind of chipper optimism, as
if everything were going to be just ducky.
But that’s not necessary at all.
That’s the wrong kind of hope.
We can look at what is real, we can face what is
excruciating and frustrating, and still go on, and still find the heart and
energy to act. This book is the guide
for living in this way. Now that it is
here, I don’t know how I got by without it.
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