Hope : Optimism : Promise : Possibility : Dream

I believe that hope is what moves us to create, to laugh, to embrace, to sing, and to love. Without hope, what motivation is there for life? Hope is at the foundation of everyone's soul, yet it is sometimes masked by fear, greed, envy or ego. Although it is sometimes easy to get caught up in the emotions of fear or the insatiable desire that is greed, there is clear evidence that hope can overpower. The people that embrace hope, encourage peace, spread love--these are the people that we remember and love. These people offer us better lives and bring about true fulfillment. These are the heroes.

I'd like to share with you a few purveyors of hope:

• Artists across Philadelphia are offering hope to the masses with beautiful murals throughout the city. Philly's Mural Arts Program has been ongoing for 25 years. They have painted hundreds of murals that reflect the city's "history, culture, and vision." These murals have the power to engage the community, deter blight, beautify, demonstrate civic pride, and have even been shown to reduce crime. Truly inspiring.
  

Bridging the Diaspora, © 2008 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Willis Humphrey, 5741 Woodland Avenue, Sponsored by the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health, Photo by Jack Ramsdale

Holding Grandmother's Quilt, © 2004 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Donald Gensler, 3912 and 3932 Aspen Street, Photo by Jack Ramsdale

• These fabulous Poketo wallets are the work of student and artist teams in which students created short stories and well-known LA artists depicted these stories through art. 826 LA, the non-profit that works with children to improve their creative writing skills, is proof that good things are happening all over this world. I'm trying to decide which wallet I should get. What do you think?

• I don't want this to become a political statement, but one of my modern day heroes that is dedicated to inspiring hope is presidential hopeful Barack Obama. His book, The Audacity of Hope says it all. And here's a quote from him to end this post.
  

Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Hope is what led me here today--with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be.

Barack Obama, speech, Jan. 3, 2008