We Are The Hopeful

Today is Christmas, albeit closer to the end of it than the beginning. And today I feel like saying I'm sorry, and saying hold on, and saying I love you.

I know that Christmas is hard for a lot of my friends. I know that many days are hard for many of my friends. But as I'm struck by a melancholy feeling I cannot explain in the quiet lull of after-Christmas, I know that today in particular is harder for them. For me. For us.

For those of us who sit and wonder, is this all there is? and have the question not even touch on presents and food. For those of us who miss holidays of years passed—years when loved ones were alive, when parents were together, when we lived in places we loved, when we were able to make a phone call and know that the person on the other end wanted to be with us as much as we wanted to be with them, wherever they were.

The great Jamie Tworkowski said today, “If you feel abandoned and haunted today, please know you're not alone. If you feel overwhelmed by questions and pain, please know you're not alone.”

And this is true.

I want you to know that if you're reading this, I love you. If you're hurting, I want your pain to stop. If you want something more, I do, too, and I know that we can fight for it if we want it.

So do you want it? And will you come with me to find it, even if it doesn't seem like it wants to be found?

There will always be despair. A friend of mine said to me today, “The bad guys always win and there is nothing we can do.”

And I told him, “The bad guys only win when we admit defeat. Remember that.”

This, I believe, is also true.

So will you join me? Will you step up and let our refusal, our denial of that defeat, echo in the bones of those who tell us we are, will always be, have always been nothing? Worthless? Hopeless?

Because we are not hopeless. We are only young, and we are learning. And we are fighting. And we will not let ourselves be trampled by our despair anymore.

We are the Hopeful.

Are you with me?