Hope

Michael Franti and Spearhead are great for restoring optimism. There's some fucked up shit in this world and when it all starts to get you down, it's important to have something that can pull you back up. Hope. Belief that things will get better, that there's still something to fight for, that humanity may not be perfect, but possibly perfectable. That it's something worth trying for.
I'm thinking about this tonight, not for myself, but about a friend here in a difficult, untenable situation. I can't reveal details, I've made promises, but there are misunderstandings involved, questions of responsibility and duty, to self and others, complicated and convoluted. And in microcosm, it seems somehow representative of many other problems in the world. Trust broken, boundary issues, who blinks first, lost in translation, inability to empathize or see another's perspective. A desire for blame.
I've also been paying attention to the Democratic primary race, early and vicious as it looks to be. And I know I won't hear it from the Republicans, but I'd sort of hoped at least one Dem might speak out, but no. The issue, the perspective I want to hear from someone in my country, someone trying to change things, change thinking, is why we were attacked on 9/11, and why there are legitimate, non-fanatic reasons that so much of the world resents the US. I just believe that it's our self-righteousness as a nation that won't allow us to discuss in any but the most simplistic and ludicrous terms the reasons for this war (They hate our way of life; They are opposed to freedom, etc.) and it stifles any real discussion of root causes that might actually change things. Like the offensiveness of our bases in their countries, our unflinching support of Israeli atrocities, our endless thirst for energy and oil to fuel our ridiculous SUVs and trucks, or any of thousands small and large slights we've inflicted in our arrogance over the years. These same blindnesses play out in individual relationships all the time, and it can be cause for despair: if two people can't work it out, can't understand each other well enough to reach peace and love, then what hope do nations and conglomerates of nations and corporations have of doing that?
Which is when I double-click Michael Franti. Sometimes Cake, sometimes Tom Waits. But it's Franti who sings about these issues, and sings without despair. Anger, yes; passion, absolutely. But also hope. That there's a way out. With a belief that people are at bottom the same: that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqis are as important as the deaths of 3,000 Americans. That we can understand that one day. Hope. Someone once called it the most exquisite torture ever devised. But it's all we've got some days.
So, to my friend: hold on to hope. Events may not turn out the way we want, and rarely in the manner we expect. The important thing is trying to understand, working for the best outcome, and hoping for the same in return. Because if you don't believe in understanding, if the situation is reduced to simplistic terms, us vs. them, my way or the highway, you're with us or you're against us, then hope is killed. And that's the greatest tragedy.