A Christmas Letter from Thailand

Hope is that thing with feathers/that perches in the soul/and sings the tune without the words/and never stops—at all. ~Emily Dickinson

Dear Ones:

After school, the air crackles with energy as the seventh graders leave my classroom. Speaking English all day should be exhausting but it seems to have energized them. To my seventh grade language learners, the world is an awesome place for friendships, new experiences, and discovering the intricacies of English. Yet they are sometimes afraid to fail, afraid to reach too high and be punished for daring. They must be prodded and encouraged. For them there are only possibilities. For them, hope is a lively tentative thing, mysterious and exciting.

For some people, though, hope is a thing that is ailing. Broken dreams and dreams that have been put on hold litter the landscape with their jaded finery. You know these people. It is someone who has lost a home or a job. It is someone you know who has cancer. As Langston Hughes once said, their struggle represents a dream deferred. That’s particularly difficult, especially around the holidays. You can’t really express joy when fear is screeching in your ears.

Somehow that separates us into the Lucky Few and the Poor Fools. The Lucky Few may think, How unlucky to be them. So they turn away in embarrassment. Indeed, it must be so, that they are ashamed to have it all: a home, family, food, money, and good health. The Poor Fool does not envy you; only asks you to have compassion. Listen to me. Pray with me, if you can. But don’t pity me for I am richer than you think, for I have hope.

If I am hopeful, surely it’s foolish to hope, because hope is all you have when you are beaten down. But you live to fight another day. If I am hopeful, but it’s foolish to hope, because hope is trying when there is nothing left to try. If you had never tried, you would never know you could succeed. If I’m hopeful, and it’s foolish to hope, because hope is going for a desperate cure even though the odds are against you to begin with. But at least you took the chance.

I’d rather be a fool and have hope. You are not alone, if you have hope. Listen to hope singing.

Merry Christmas to all and Walk Good in the New Year,

Andy, Jo Anne, Taranee, and AJ