Kaitlin Ruiz: I joke a lot about my capacity for despair, but there's enough Catholic discipline in my youth to remember that it is in fact a sin, one that absorbs all the best in you more comprehensively than a tar pit. I left the church ages ago, but I held onto that cable: despair is not a long-term good.

I joke a lot about my capacity for despair, but there's enough Catholic discipline in my youth to remember that it is in fact a sin, one that absorbs all the best in you more comprehensively than a tar pit. I left the church ages ago, but I held onto that cable: despair is not a long-term good.

an old professor, a survivor of his country's civil war, often reminded me that all activism relies upon hope, sister to faith--the evidence of things unseen. our ability to imagine and enact better futures, even when we don't have visuals, is how we endure.

Merwin, as ever

Thanks by W. S. Merwin | Poetry Foundationwww.poetryfoundation.org Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you.

Emily Dickinson described Hope as 'the thing with feathers,' but I have found Hope to be more like the diamond that you yourself create by hanging in there in the face of insurmountable pressures. It's the immovable object and the unstoppable force; it's the drive to live written into our coding.

Have you read Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark?

I have a copy floating around somewhere that I keep meaning to read! I really like Solnit.

she compares hope to a moth following the moon, it'll never reach it but still needs it as a guide

oh gosh, that's gorgeous

there’s another alternative to despair too good old fashioned rage can get you out of bed in the morning don’t let them take it from you without a fight every bad guy has a plan until you punch them in the mouth

yes!!!!!

despair keeps you in bed. spite gets you out of it

"Despair is for those who see the end beyond all doubt, and we do not." Gandalf, JRR Tolkin. We cannot know the future for certain and that means there is always room for hope.

Agreed, heartily. I rarely think in terms of sin (once in a while), but YES on despair being Not Good For You. Also, it's pretty contagious. So that's a problem as well.

same! much of that language is a relic, to me--but it does occasionally provide me with handgrips for understanding or explaining something.

Yes. That's very well put!

An apparition of Marilla Cuthbert just appeared before me and yelled at me for ten minutes straight about "turning my back on God"

Doomers are my sworn enemy

Hope is the poor man’s bread. An old turkish saw

I'm very not-Catholic and appreciate learning of this tenet. Filing it away for *those* times.

I did not know that despair is a sin in Catholicism. I like that.

Oh yeah. That is the worst sin of Judas, not his betrayal.

I grew up Protestant Christian, with the lesson that "fear is not of god". I've kept this in mind ever since, too. It's helped me stay sane and I don't like being in despair for too long

Admittedly I was raised in a much more chill, less dogmatic parish, but I didn't realize despair was a sin. I mean it makes sense, giving too much into despair takes you away from God, whose forgiveness and love is supposed to take away your sin.

I'd forgotten about that one. Not much Catholic left in me besides a ton of historical/Biblical trivia and a thing for Latin and ritual. But there's enough that the thought of "Oh I have to add that to the confession list..." did cause a slight chill up my spine.

Fine fine you are right ….

📌

Lots of good Dorothy Day quotes to this effect.

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