January 2, 2022 — Perhaps this is a familiar pattern – a mixture of good news and bad news. The bad news is likely not really news. Many people are comparing our difficult circumstances of this past year to the so-called dark ages. But the good news is that it isn’t hard to see signs we are set to […]
December 26, 2021 — Hope is, by its very nature, unreasonable. It is not based on empiric evidence. Shane Lopez, editor of the Oxford Handbook of Hope, defined it as: “The belief that the future will be better than the present, along with the belief that you have the power to make it so.” Today, we feel the need […]
December 19, 2021 — Our roller coaster ride is not over. Not by a long shot. Back in July, optimism about putting the COVID pandemic behind us was high. A record number of people told Gallup they felt they were thriving. The swing from a 12-year low was remarkable. But now it seems a more truthful assessment is that […]
January 1, 2021 — In a world of divisions, one sentiment seems to unite us: joy in being done with 2020. Thus we say that we look to this new year with a measure of hope for better days ahead. Even for a stern realist, hope is important. Monica Hesse explains: I am not a superstitious person and I […]
