I don’t quite get it when people say they can live without hope. Maybe it’s a stage of evolution or enlightenment I have not attained yet.

All I have to do is look at a young person and I know exactly what I hope for.

I hope for a world in which people won’t be starving and killing each other. I hope for a world in which love reigns supreme amidst humanity, where the mass of people who understand we need to care for one another and our planet will make it so that the world gets better and better, not worse and worse, and that despite whatever ravages climate change will bring, by the end of this century, humans will at last possess the secret to living in peace with one another and there will be no more wars, no more torture, no more rape – violence will become an extremely rare thing – something to be healed, something we will have the capacity to heal – as we take such joy and nourishment from our own and each other’s open hearts, as we share the water and the food and the safety, and all sentient beings on the planet are respected and honored and humanity lives on and on and evolves to ever sweeter vibrations throughout a million millennia to come, right up until our star the sun explodes and by then somehow it won’t even matter because we will be so high, so cool with everything. Pure spirit maybe, I don’t know.

So I’ve been reading the news a little less lately. (And inspired by my lifelong friend Barbara, I’m volunteering with Postcards to Voters, doing something proactive instead of just freaking out.) Backing away from the news gives me some perspective – namely, that consuming the news a lot makes me feel hopeless, and that hopelessness is actually a kind of trance.

So it occurs to me to think about whether I see any signs of hope in my world, as I withdraw my head from the computer newsfeeds. I tasked myself with finding 25 things. Below my signoff is my list. What’s yours?

Send us a list – large or small – of signs of hope you see for humanity’s future. If you let us, we’ll publish them (and credit you too, if you let us). (Heck, maybe we’ll start a chain letter. Or you can!)

–Marc

1. Spanking kids is no longer considered acceptable in my immediate culture.

2. People are creating incredible, moving music.

3. Gay people can get married now anywhere in the U.S.

4. Recreational pot is legal in Oregon and a bunch of other states. (Actually I think “recreational” is a misnomer – but never mind! That’s a topic for another newsletter!)

5. If we want to be, we can be aware of the suffering and struggles of people all over the world, and avenues even exist to help alleviate suffering in faraway places.

6. There exist plentiful resources and avenues by which to help alleviate local suffering.

7. Everybody I meet seems to understand what an open heart is.

8. People are writing incredible, moving, inspirational books.

9. I’m still grateful to Mitt Romney. (I owe him a letter.)

10. Climate change is a huge issue in the current U.S. election cycle.

11. There is a whole lot of wonderful stuff going on that we don’t know about. There must be, right? Like, I heard about some type of mushroom that can eat plastic?

12. #metoo has created a sea change in consciousness just over the last few years.

13. There are a LOT of wise, spiritually lit up young people around.

14. Babies still come into the world wide open, innocent, without prejudice.

15. The earth itself is wise.

16. Even Donald Trump is a human being (much as I hate to admit it). He’s just a lot more wounded than most of us. So what does that say about our collective soul state right now, that we’re being “led” by a wounded infant? (Don’t be afraid. There is hope here too if we look closely.)

17. If we can forgive the people we war against in our hearts – and we know this is possible (right? I’ve done that. Have you ever?) – it is likely that whole conglomerates of people can forgive each other too, like Israelis and Palestinians, Hindus and Moslems, etc.

18. There are a lot of new “consciousness technologies” popping up, like yoga nidra, EFT, movement therapy, etc.

19. People love each other better than they did when I was a child. (It seems. I don’t mean to cast aspersions on past generations and how well they loved.)

20. It seems there are more lifestyles to choose from than ever before – at least in the U.S.

21. The “Black lives matter” meme has gone viral and changed America’s collective consciousness.

22. After all this time (75 years? Depends where you clock it from.), all this brinksmanship, all these stockpiles, and so much pathological world leadership … still no nuclear war. (fingers crossed; heart in mouth; knocking on wood; praying ceaselessly in rhythm with the great unknown sainted pray-ers of the world)

23. American citizens traveled in droves to the border to donate supplies to the imprisoned immigrant children, risking arrest in some cases. (Not sure if that’s still going on.)

24. Everyone knows there is deep work to be done.

25. The journey continues … with surprises every day. (Yes? No? Right?)