Feeling Fortunate Because…

I landed in SFO, safe and sound. Phew. Then, I rented a car and drove in pouring rain to Sonoma, where I am staying with a friend of 50 + years for three days this trip and where I will be working to help a campus that is struggling. I’ll be coming back over the next five months to help.

How fortunate am I to have extraordinary friends and to engage in work that will, I hope, help thousands? Very fortunate.

I have deep long standing friends across the globe; I am still young enough (at heart and in capacity) to give back. I can travel around to places to help others. My gray hair has its benefits: wisdom, perspective and tenacity.

As we age, what more can we want than vitality, friendship and productive work, even in a world gone mad?

So to all you naysayers out there, all you complainers, all you who stay indoors and watch the Hallmark channel: you are missing out on life’s gift. If you can, choose instead to help others. Give your time and your money to bettering the world. Not only will others be better, so will you. Don’t Stay in: go out and help!

Complaining about one’s lot in life is wasted breath. The goal, at least as best as I can see, is to find ways to move forward with hope. That isn’t easy. But if we miss hope, planning for tomorrow is dark. Brushing and lamenting (repetitively) gets you nowhere.

I have lots to say about cultivating hope but for tonight, I am grateful for the benefits of and opportunity to, in a small way, improve our world.

To end, this thought. I have been reading the late Richard Cohen’s book, aptly titled “Chasing Hope.” He references the stunning capacities of Woodruff and Brokaw as they battled illness/accidents. What he writes should guide us all:

Wow. There it is, plain and clear: give back, find hope and exercise selflessness. There is no room for narcissism and meanness. Park it elsewhere. The kinder empathic folks are moving forward. We can, if we try, move the needle.