I always find it important to maintain a realistic attitude to life and its challenges. A touch of realism goes a long way.
We’re all aware of the dangers involved in looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses, of being overly confident or optimistic about what some new project will accomplish.
For one thing, life rarely works out the way we’d planned. This means that betting on something good happening when it’s quite unlikely can make us even less prepared to deal with the new reality we face.
This has a knock-on effect. If things don’t go the way we hope or intend, we can become disheartened and discouraged. If we become discouraged, we can become less inclined to act, we can give up or feel burned out. I vividly remember seeing this sort of thing following some of the campaigns we’ve been involved in.
You can put a lot into a campaign, but if it ultimately fails, which has been the norm of late, you can wonder what the point is.
Some people prefer to be pessimistic or cynical about any prospect of success. Their attitude is that there is no hope of achieving anything so nothing should be done. This fails to acknowledge the duty and dignity of standing up for what is true, in season and out.
The point is to be realistic, to have a balanced assessment of what’s going on, to anticipate both the good and bad outcomes. This allows us to celebrate the good, without ignoring the bad.
War Zones
Hamas is releasing Israeli hostages. This is a good thing. This is something to celebrate.
But this doesn’t mean that Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas is over. This doesn’t mean the ground campaign in Gaza is over. This doesn’t mean that Hamas has altered its plans or varied its objectives.
Hamas is almost certainly using the ceasefire to regroup and shore up regional and international support. They orchestrated Israel’s equivalent of the September 11 attacks on New York City.
We can celebrate this pause, while mentally preparing for what’s next. And at the same time, we do not need to excuse the savagery of their strategy.
Likewise, if we look at Ukraine, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is slow-going. Victories are hard-won and cost much in lives and equipment. But the counteroffensive is succeeding.
Perhaps we got used to the idea that wars are short and sharp, and transition quickly into peacekeeping, whereas we must accept that many wars are long and never really end.
My point is that in both instances there are small successes, relatively small wins – but wins, nonetheless. We can and should celebrate these wins. A lot went into making them happen. But at the same time, there is still much to do.
Long-Term Vision
We decided this year to pivot our Movement to focus on rebuilding real communities. This is exceptionally slow work because we still maintain all our other operations. However, as a result, we have growing communities across the country and the potential to do more in the future.
Thank you for helping us make this happen.
