Fascinating facts

Dear Hopeful One,

Last week we had a Heart of Love Message in which we were asked to become emissaries for Hope in the world, to hear the hope, see the hope, speak the hope and to lend hope a hand.

As I listen to the casual conversations going on around me everywhere - even at New Age events and on the phone with my friends - I’m sometimes disheartened by what we are creating with the power and energy of our words. Again and again I hear people affirming that these are the worst of times, that things are bad, very bad.

I believe this to be uninformed harmful gossip at best and outright lies that we are perpetuating at worst. That may seem a shocking statement but I’ll just stick my neck out there and say it. These things are not true. They simply are not.

There are many problems. That has always been true. At many times, throughout history things have been bad in our world. There have been many wars and plagues and natural disasters. We live in a time that is challenging in that way. But is it the worst of such times? Not even close.

Our recent plague (there have been many in the history of humanity) was very scary, many died. The numbers seem to be settling at about 2% as an average. That was many people and we were all sad and worried.

However, it was not as bad as the last flu pandemic, in about 1916 through1918 when 40-60% of the population died in many, many places around the world. The same numbers have been true of the black plague which ravaged the known world numerous times. Ours was bad enough, but it was not the worst.

The current wars are unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. But they are not the worst. And increasingly when a country wars now, growing numbers of people lend their voices together in outrage because it’s possible now to be heard in that way. We can be heard in great numbers now, and we are speaking against war and in support of the innocent civilian victims of war. This matters.

It is an important change. Something is building there. We are beginning to realize that maybe we don’t need to be silent victims of war. This is real progress… this is how change occurs over the course of human evolution.

The population is no longer primarily indentured surfs and oppressed peoples ruled by church and state, or at the helpless behest of landowners and kings. More of the population has freedom, better quality of life, better health, education and more opportunities. Not for all, but for many more.

It is important to say as well that where there are inequities, people are working hard in every area of life to change this. I challenge you to name a century when more people have cared about making the world a better place and are actually working to create that world.

So much is better for so many. Reflect on who humanity was en mass during earlier times such as the dark ages. Think on this. Many things have changed and improved.

It must be said. If we are to effectively speak of and address the problems that exist, we must have a balanced view of how much has changed for the better over time. If not, we will lose hope and begin to spiral into the creation of its opposite.

Some of you will remember I shared the following short paragraphs a few years ago. Chipotle restaurants printed them on their December takeout bags in 2015. It is no less true now.

A Two-Minute Case for Optimism

by STEVEN PINKER

It’s easy to get discouraged by the ceaseless news of violence, poverty, and disease. But the news presents a distorted view of the world. News is about things that happen, not things that don’t happen. You never see a TV crew reporting that a country isn’t at war, or that a city hasn’t had a mass shooting that day, or that millions of 80-year-olds are alive and well.

The only way to appreciate that state of the world is to count. How many incidents of violence, or starvation, or disease are there as a proportion of the number of people in the world? And the only way to know whether things are getting better or worse is to compare those numbers at different times: over the centuries and decades, do the trend lines go up or down?

As it happens, the numbers tell a surprisingly happy story. Violent crime has fallen by half since 1992, and fifty fold since the Middle Ages. Over the past 60 years the number of wars and number of people killed in wars have plummeted. Worldwide, fewer babies die, more children go to school, more people live in democracies, more can afford simple luxuries, fewer get sick, and more live to old age.

“Better” does not mean “perfect.” Too many people still live in misery and die prematurely, and new challenges, such as climate change, confront us. But measuring the progress we’ve made in the past emboldens us to strive for more in the future. Problems that look hopeless may not be; human ingenuity can chip away at them. We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naïve to work toward a better one.

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And now THE LIGHT IS POURING IN. It is pouring into our world, into you and me and every person, every tree and blade of grass. It is pouring in. Hope will hasten its effectiveness. See the hope, be its eyes, be its voice, and lend it a hand by sharing what’s actually true.

It’s easy enough, during conversations about what’s wrong in the world, to say something like, “It’s true there are a lot of problems, but I’m hopeful about humanity and the world. We’ve evolved a lot since the dark ages, we’ve overcome and changed many things for the better. And everywhere people are working to make this a better world. I believe we are turning things around.”

It’s very fun to be the bearer of hope.
And love, always,
Mayet Leilani