by Kathie MM
I have sent the link to the Greta Thunberg speech shown above to dozens of people, and they are enthusiastically full of admiration for her. [See last week’s post about her.
She is a hero, a superhero, the child who shall lead us.
But you can speak for yourselves too. A good way to gear yourself up for activism,if you are not already into it heart and soul, is to read Hope and other superpowers: A life-affirming, love-defending,butt-kicking world-saving manifesto by John Pavlovitz. The book is all that it says it is in that great title and subtitle.
Here’s a quote from John’s introduction:
“Many of us are lamenting the despair and divisiveness around us, aching for something more redemptive but no longer sure how to get to it from where we stand. We’ve watched helplessly as people have grown emboldened in the land of bigotry they’d once kept concealed. We’ve witnessed unabashed hatred regularly trending nationally. We’ve seen new fractures develop or old wounds reopen in our families, marriages, and friendships…We’re all desperately straining for something to sustain us—something to right all that feels so wrong around us…. (p. xiii)”
Yes. Many of us are looking for superheroes to inspire us, to remind us that there are good people out there fighting against racism, bigotry, and environmental degradation, and fighting for peace, human rights, and the survival of the environment in which all life can be sustained or destroyed.
The good news that Pavlovitz brings us in his world-saving manifesto is that we all have it in us to be superheroes. We all have superpowers that can help us recognize, elicit, and activate our own superpowers and to make the kind of difference we see as needed in these frightening times. In the next few posts, I will share some of Pavlovitz’s engaging ideas as to how to achieve this.