I don't know who said it, but I like it

Apologies if my taking last week off from this blog caused a disruption in your life. My life was overwhelmed by dozens of final white papers and technical reports and oral presentations (on video) as the semester wraps up. It's not over, as this is the actual finals week for both CSU and Metro... but the bulk of work has been completed. 

Not surprisingly, last week did not see any slow down in news and scandals and atrocities and all sorts of negative information. Maybe it's best not to return to all those things.

This week doesn't look calmer. So any hint of some way forward is welcome. Yesterday's sermon at church included a very cool quote from St. Augustine, the incredibly prolific writer (we have over 5 million words from him) who died about 430 CE. 

Here's the quote: “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”

It's a compelling view of how hope works (and hope was the main focus of the sermon) and I came home and did the quickest search online to see if I could learn more about this view, about Augustine, and about any context that might help me better understand.

And here's the thing: Augustine did not write this and no one really knows who did. I am relying, of course, on Augustine scholars who have combed his writing (in Latin) looking for where he might have written this. No scholars have found any versions of these words.

Well, that's disappointing, though I have no plans to steal any thunder from the minister who shared the quote or go down the rabbit hole of "fake quotes" -- there is a plague of them on social media.

After all, I like the sense of the quote, though it would be nice to have the added ethos that referring to one of the most famous thinkers in history on our side. In fact, I'm going to use the quote, whatever its true origins, as the starting point of a sort of pep talk for high school media students that I am developing.

The pandemic has been tough on everyone, but young people in particular, as far as I can tell. They lost a sense of connection and purpose. They lost an expectation of steady progress and a sense of safety. 

Lots of classroom teachers are noting a growing apathy, an acceptance of a grim fate and a "less than" future among students. It's not everyone. Nothing ever is. But the teachers themselves often share some of this idea of their lives being a bit less than they hoped and about wondering whether there is a clear point to this whole education exercise.

It sounds healthy to me to be OK with some righteous anger. The related step of using courage to try to make some changes can be what provides us all with the energy and purpose that keeps the anger from turning to despair and lack of hope.

Once the hope is gone, the progress is gone.