The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

by Jane Goodall

“Hope,” Jane said, “is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so.”

Hope leads to future success in a way that wishful thinking does not. While both involve thinking about the future with rich imagery, only hope sparks us to take action directed toward the hoped-for goal—

Hope, on the other hand, is a stubborn determination to do all you can to make it work.

“Hope does not deny all the difficulty and all the danger that exists, but it is not stopped by them. There is a lot of darkness, but our actions create the light.” “So it seems we can shift our perspective to see the light and also to work to create more of it.”

So many older people I knew spent a great deal of time focused on their aches and pains, but those who seemed healthiest and happiest were those who focused on something beyond their own troubles.

Idealism expects everything to be fair or easy or good. She says it’s a defense mechanism not unlike denial or delusion.

“First—we must alleviate poverty. If you are living in crippling poverty, you will cut down the last tree to grow food. Or fish the last fish because you’re desperate to feed your family. In an urban area you will buy the cheapest food—you do not have the luxury of choosing a more ethically produced product. “Second, we must reduce the unsustainable lifestyles of the affluent. Let’s face it, so many people have way more stuff than they need—or even want. “Third, we must eliminate corruption, for without good governance and honest leadership, we cannot work together to solve our enormous social and environmental challenges. “And finally, we must face up to the problems caused by growing populations of humans and their livestock. There are over seven billion of us today, and already, in many places, we have used up nature’s finite natural resources faster than nature can replenish them. And by 2050 there will apparently be closer to ten billion of us. If we carry on with business as usual, that spells the end of life on Earth as we know it.”

True wisdom requires both thinking with our head and understanding with our heart.”

The Hidden Life of Trees.