Well. I know you're expecting softies, and there's more coming later, but I wanted to start a new thread about HOPE.
For the past few months in America, all we've heard is endless horrible, frightening news about the economy. Every news story. every magazine article. every advertisment. Today i started to read an article in Los Angeles Magazine about a new museum and it started with "'The economy may be struggling....". Last night the economic news on TV news was only slightly set aside to talk about the horrible events in Mumbai and the big rain storm we were having. Rain is a big deal in LA. In New York, you have to have a hurricane to warrant a lead story - in Los Angeles, more than a sprinkle gets on the front page.
I lived in New York during 9/11 and the atmosphere was so overwhelmingly sad and depressed. I walked past the same fire station every day with it's memorial of flower bouquets in front left by neighborhood well-wishers. But even worse were the hundreds of hand made signs that people left tacked up everywhere describing a loved one that had disappeared in the World Trade Center collapse - in those early days people hoped that their friends might have escaped and were just in a hospital or wandering the streets in a daze.
It's starting to feel like that time again - everything focused on the worst economy, no jobs, people out of work, talk of a new WPA. So since I can't avoid it and it's driving me crazy, I've decided to actively search for something hopeful on as daily a basis as I can.
Starting with today and the image below which is the most hopeful thing I can grab onto. I should research who designed this poster - it's a great image.