Finding Hope

We mean well. It’s not an issue of intent.

We believe that we make things better by reminding others that things could be so much worse.

We want to lessen the pain, to fix the grief-stricken, so we try to counterbalance each negative with a positive.

We just want to help.

Accepting so much suffering, such unhinged, unstoppable grief, is somehow terrifying.

But that is exactly our task today when so many have lost so much.

Simply listening, accepting their grief, without bromides, without judgment, without fixes. Holding them close. Validating their loss. Sharing their pain and fear, sometimes silently.

The artist, RENOIR once said, “The pain passes but the beauty remains.“

Our job is to endure their pain with them until they see the beauty once more. It cannot be hurried. It cannot be forced. It will take whatever time is necessary.

Will you?

“Alone, we are doomed, but by the same token, we’ve learned that people are impossible, even the ones we love most — especially the ones we love most; they’re damaged, prickly and set in their ways. Also, they’ve gotten old and a little funny, which can be draining.“

“It is most comfortable to be invisible, to observe life from a distance, at one with our own intoxicating superior thoughts. But comfort and isolation are not where the surprises are. They are not where hope is...”

“Only together do we somehow keep coming through unsurvivable loss, the stress of never knowing how things will shake down, to the biggest miracle of all, that against all odds, we come through the end of the world, again and again — changed but intact (more or less)…“

“Insofar as I have any idea of ‘The Truth,’ I believe this to be as true as gravity and grace.”

That is Anne Lamott, from her new book “STITCHES,” and it will help you help those you love when hope seems lost.

I realize this is not about radio.

This is about us as human beings, the certainty that you and I will continue to face loss and fear and pain, and I’ve always believed that the more we grow in our humanity, the better able we are to reflect that on our radio stations.

Yes, it helps ratings.

More importantly, it helps lives.