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Not Optimistic. Hopeful.

Ya know, it is not that I am going through some crazy moment in my life where I have a mental/emotional breakdown and go out and start buying corvettes or something. But it is also not a moment in my life where it is business as usual, either. It seems I am in need of a new approach to some of the things in my life, a fresh prespective and and a new manifesto, so to speak. And I know this because it seems like everything that I read, or watch, or listen to - is speaking to me in a totally new way. Has this ever happened to you? It is quite strange, to be honest. But I am trying to embrace it, and listen to it.
So today, I read the following passage, and it meant a lot to me. And the thing is, is that I doubt it would have meant that much to me previously. But, like I said - everything is speaking to me in a totally new way. So check it out. Tutu is a playmaker.

An Interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu
From the New York Times, 2010.

Your oldest child and only son, Trevor Tutu, became embroiled in controversy in 1989, when he made a bomb threat at an airport in South Africa.
Yeah, and went to jail.

And was granted amnesty. What is he up to now?
He’s a very gifted person, but you see a little bit how God must feel about us because he has really undermined his own life by his abuse of alcohol. When he’s not under the influence, he’s incredibly wonderful, he really is, and it makes you weep to see how he then is almost intent on destroying himself.

How do you make peace with that, as a preacher who has just written a book asking us to be optimistic?
Not optimistic, hopeful. Optimism is a much lighter thing. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. You see it wonderfully when you fly and the sky is overcast. Sometimes you forget that just beyond the clouds the sun is shining.



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