Half Priced Christmas Cards and Hope

Last week I did a little shopping. First, I bought a stock of seventy Christmas cards for 2006 at 50% off. Second, I purchased three huge rolls of Christmas wrapping paper at 75% off. I hate paying full price for these things which usually end up at the bottom of a trash can on Christmas day or soon afterwards.

Good consumer thinking? Yes, of course. But this year I realized that people who invest in a future event a year or more away--even in small ways like buying half-priced Christmas cards-- are really expressing hope. In my case, I hope that I may be here for Christmas 2006 and that I will be able to share in its joy with friends and family as I have done already for 62 years. When I read the obituaries in the Indianapolis Star each morning, I realize that there are plenty of people my age and much younger who in fact do not survive. So I hope that life may continue.

One of the things that I have realized during the past months is that to hope is not easy for everyone. Last week I was trying to console a man who came into the bookstore with black and blue marks over his face. He had been beaten up by his partner during a fight, his glasses were broken and he left home with two grocery bags: one for his t-shirts and jeans and another for his medicines. He cried out that he had really messed up his life big time. He didn't feel any hope and it was hard for me to convey any tangible hope outside of listening to his narrative. Another young woman I know, in her early twenties, told me that she had made a series of irrevocable bad decisions and it is impossible to undo any of them or to move in a new direction. She is caught. She feels as though her future is simply the acting out of the consequences of her bad decisions. She expressed that she has absolutely no hope.

In light of the existential pain and hopelessness that these people feel, my "Christmas card hope"appears trivial. Yet, I cannot allow the hopelessness of others to become my rule and I cannot try to discern my own hope in huge earth-shaking events: I hope for myself. I hope for a better and more just world. And I look for signs of this hope in the seemingly insignificant material of daily ordinary life. This is a theme that I have written about in several of these blog postings. I have done a little inventory of places in my daily life where I express hope and here are some of the items that I was able to list:

• Writing letters each month to government officials around the world related to human rights abuses sponsored by Amnesty International. I spite of incredible human cruelty to other humans, I hope for a better, more just world.
• Selecting a birthday present for my (almost) two year old great niece, Catherine. When she is my age, I won't be around to know who she has become. But I hope that she will have a full, wonderful life.
• Reciting the Nicene Creed during the Liturgy each week and repeating with other believers "We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
• Trying to learn how to manage the computer program Excel. It may be that some old dogs do not learn new tricks but this guy wants to know knew things. I hope for a life characterized by learning, even when I am old.
• Giving hugs and receiving hugs from friends at appropriate moments. I hope for a life where individuals support individuals in their daily trials and struggles.

I could go on and on but you get the point.

As this New Year begins, I hope.