How to Find Light in the Darkness

If the current and upcoming SCOTUS rulings, divisiveness in our country, and bad news in your text chain, on the news, and everywhere you look, has you feeling like we are heading into another Dark Ages, please know: 1) you are not alone, 2) we will do better together, and 3) we can find light in the darkness. My Grandfather would tell us we must.

A New World War II Hero

In the makings of an epic Hollywood saga, my family just learned via a newly-discovered letter, that during World War II, my Grandpa had been imprisoned and severely beaten for hiding over 500 Jews in the factories he owned throughout Hungary. The beatings were such that he would experience severe headaches and anxiety for the rest of his life. We had known, from his stories, that he had “saved the lives of a few Jewish people as the Nazi regime took over,” but we never knew the extent of his courage or his suffering.

Thinking about what he lived through and the darkness of World War II, war in general, and the war and warfare happening still today, my heart is heavy, as it often is in light of the challenges of our times. Gun violence. Climate disasters. Human rights abuses. Human rights losses. I often ask myself, What will our children and grandchildren’s futures hold, and how can we keep hope alive in their tender hearts and minds? And in our own too.

After the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that will likely outlaw legalized abortion nationwide, eight-foot tall fencing was erected around the “The Marble Palace,” where the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices lay down their judgments as arbiters of the law.

**We do not need more fences.**

What we do need is more hope and confidence that truth, justice, equity, and peace will prevail. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” wrote pioneering South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In a conversation yesterday with a dear friend about how to ensure our children feel hope, I had a two-part aha moment:

We know from the wisdom of nature that it is in the breakdown, the cracks, that light can get through. So as we look around and read the news and feel our hearts ache with another senseless tragedy, loss, or disaster, we must believe that in this severe breaking down of our every system, cracks will appear and the light will shine through.
Furthermore, there is a designer and arbiter of law more powerful than any “Justice” or “Supreme” Court: Mother Nature. Her brilliant designs have created systems that have thrived for thousands of years. We can learn from this genius and apply her wisdom in all of our human endeavors.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently said that the “Court’s mistakes can be corrected over time.” And the court of Mother Nature will rectify the mistakes made from man’s hubris. In Nature, we can find our hope, a path forward. To be sure, there is destructive power in Nature. Predators kill and eat prey. But science—and thousands-year-old indigenous wisdom—tells us there is more collaboration and symbioses in the natural world than there is violence and destruction.

There is another way.

Right now, politics and algorithms are telling us there is only hatred and fear: the way of the “other” or “my/our” way. Truth is, there is another way. We can work together to create conditions conducive to life, just like the greatest mom of all does, Mother Nature. Trees look like they stand alone but really, their roots are interwoven and other species of plants and bacteria grow amid them, providing nourishment, and they grow stronger together. A June 2022 Pew Research Center report, indicates the majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Former Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee Al Hoffman Jr. recently wrote about legislation to support gun responsibility: “The problem with Democrats is that they have only bad solutions. The problem with Republicans is that they have no solutions. Compromises must be made.” There is so much common ground to be found.

Today, there are solutions for the majority of the environmental, social, economic, and political challenges we face. The solutions lie in bridging differences, crossing aisles, and working together to create conditions conducive for life. We cannot let fear, politics, and algorithms drive us further apart. There are universal hopes and dreams, particularly among moms, for our children. Like my Grandpa, for all of our children, we must look for ways to let in the light.