Hope during wartime

I have been watching a few online films lately - quite a few listed on brasschecktv.com, and I'm in the middle of a film called Zeitgeist - The Movie, which apparently has two versions - 2006 and 2007. Oddly enough, these films have transported me to a more spiritual mindset.

The more I look at humankind, the more I am convinced that we are on path to destroy this planet and make it inhabitable for ourselves, not to mention other creatures. It's amazing how a people so clever can be so stupid - or at least willfully ignorant - at the same time.

This is an unusual post for me - I usually like to deal in specifics, but not today. Today, I have more questions than answers. Though I feel a sense of out and out doom for the empirical world we live in, I also feel an odd sense of hope, as if there is some way we can, in some form, transcend this spiritual plane, even as we destroy it.

I look at myself, here in the position where I probably spend most of my waking hours, in front of the keyboard, tapping away, occasionally glancing out the window at the blue sky and the towering Spruce Pines next door.

Given the amount of information I know about the world and the way it works, and the pace at which we are quickly losing our humanity, I marvel that I still feel like I am here for a purpose, and it's a relatively noble one. Is it because in the last year, I have attracted a bright, talented 6-year-old into my life? Or is there something more immediate I will do that might benefit mankind?

Our radio show, Making Progress on WPVM, has a stronger reach online than it does through the airwaves, though I don't worry about whether the show reaches 6 people or 6 million. I hope it makes a difference to at least a handful of people, and I keep doing the show without needing to know what size impact it makes.

Or maybe there's something else that I'll be doing in the near future that will make a difference? Somehow, I just trust that before my lifespan is over, I will have done something worthwhile. Sometimes, I just what to know what that something is.

Maybe growing our own food, and loving those around us is all we can really do - and all this bloviating about the state of our nation, corporations and politicians is more for the benefit of my own peace of mind than to actually bring about change to these institutions.

Maybe I have to keep doing these simple tasks until the tyrants wielding the power in this country come for me - or maybe they never will come, and I'll just keep on with my routine of typical day-to-day stuff mixed with whatever activist cause gets under my skin at any given moment.

As dark as history and current events tell me that our situation is, I still am filled with hope. And I still have time to turn away from the news feed and listen to the chatter of the birds, and feel warm sunlight on my skin.

Today, my mood leans toward hope and optimism in the face of a mountain of evidence that suggests my sense of hope is ill-founded. Maybe that's the best we can do as humans?