A new hope

Finding your way to the light, no matter how dark it gets

It seems I can’t even turn on my phone anymore without seeing some form of darkness.

Today, it’s the threat of COVID-19. The danger of the infection, yes—but more than that, the wedge being driven between individuals, between cultures, as they isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Less than a month ago, Twitter was exploding with sorrow and pain, #KobeBryant trending for so many nights. Just weeks prior, as I scrolled through Instagram, I was tapping through never-ending stories of the tragic bushfires in Australia. Even shows like Doctor Who are giving grand speeches about climate conservation to conclude stories set on horrific, post-apocalyptic planets revealed to be utterly demolished future versions of Earth.

We’re three months into the new year, the new decade: a time of new beginnings and resolutions, of improvements to both ourselves and our surroundings. So why does it seem as though this momentous occasion holds nothing more than the beginning of the end?

Better question: how can we stay optimistic about ourselves, about our future, if every day seems just one day closer to our inevitable destruction?

Once upon a time, my answer would have been to “try not to think about it”, to fill my mind with other ideas, happier ideas, and to go about my day as if the doomsday scenario weren’t even a passing thought.

But now, we’re at a turning point. If we all simply go about our days as if nothing’s wrong, nothing is going to change. We’ll keep emitting fossil fuels into the atmosphere, keep isolating ourselves from other human beings, distancing ourselves instead of banding together. Nothing will change; everything will fall into further disarray until we’re so far gone that there will be no light left in the darkness. And yeah, in a few years’ time, this whole ignoring-the-situation scenario may be the only thing we can do to keep ourselves from slipping into darkness.

Right now, though? We still have the capability to make a change. The window is brief—and quickly escaping—but there’s still a sliver of light, a tear in the fabric of the deep, dark curtain that’s sweeping over the stage that is our planet: a sliver that we can capture, that we can tear further until the darkness is shredded and the world is bathed in nothing but light. In order to do so, though, we need to use our voices; to take a step; to make a change. Ignoring the problem isn’t going to solve it—acting upon it is the only thing that will.

What we need, in order to do so, is something that’s been around since the beginning of time. The same force that assisted Luke Skywalker and Rey, but also the force shared by Professor Dumbledore, by the Doctor, by Fred Rogers. By Greta Thunberg.

No, not The Force—THE force.

Hope.

We, the Gen Z/Millennial/Boomer/Everything-In-Between generations, are the only ones who can do this. We are the ones alive today, living within this window of change, possessing the power to change the course of our downward spiral—to change the course of history. So long as we have hope: hope that one day, things will get better. That someday, this seemingly never-ending darkness will finally pass.

Because with hope comes optimism. With hope comes faith, and a belief that this is not the end. With hope comes compassion, teamwork and acceptance. With hope comes love—for ourselves, for our fellow humans, for our planet.

Hope is powerful—after all, if it didn’t hold such extraordinary power, why would so many pieces of pop culture centre around it? Why, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, would Professor Dumbledore declare “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light?” Why would the finale of Doctor Who’s eleventh season—an episode filled with carnage and destruction conclude with the statement “keep your faith… the Universe will surprise you… constantly,” a proclamation about maintaining hope after witnessing the darkest horrors lurking in the shadows of the world, if hope were not such a force to be reckoned with?

I believe that optimism and hope can lead you to believe in a better world. Yet I also know that it’s hard to act upon something you don’t believe is possible. That, I think, is the true power of hope. Hope shows you that the darkness will end. It proves that things will get better, that there is light around the corner. The moment someone realizes that returning to the light is possible, their motivation to take action, to make the changes necessary to reach that blissful state, increases a thousand-fold. We all have a fire within us; it just takes that spark, that beacon of hope, to ignite it—whether that spark is self-driven, or explicitly inspired by the messages in films, in television, or even in this very piece of writing.

Sure, it may feel as though we live in a pretty dark world right now. Yet there are so many things that we can do to change our course, so many actions we can take to counteract the darkness. And, honestly, we all know what to do. Some of us just lack the proper motivation. But with hope comes belief, belief that even the tiniest change can make a difference—and that is all the motivation you need.

So, dear reader, find your hope. Even in the bleakest of times, don’t give up. We have one piece of ammunition left in our corner, one last weapon with which to fight the darkness, and that is hope. With it, we can take a chance. With it, we can make the change.

We can win this war against the dark.

And then, finally, we’ll be able to step back into the light.