let’s do better

After the election I noticed the title of an NPR podcast from Weekend Edition. It was about escapist fiction to take your mind off of the election results. Just what I need, I thought. But what was the book editor recommending? Dystopian fiction. Why? Why?  That’s not what I need.

Recently, while downloading Kindle samples for books I saw in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, my Kindle Store web app displayed Dystopian Societies as the first category of suggested titles. Why? Why?

Fr. Phil used up in Morgan Hill used to preach about this. Why envision a dystopian society when we can just as easily envision a utopian society, he asked. Yes, “utopia” means nowhere, but we can make “nowhere” into “now here.” Remember the Belinda Carlisle song “Heaven is a Place on Earth”?

My friend Tahoe Mom writes of hope:

Advent, a time of waiting. A time of anticipation. A time of Hope. This year more than any I have experienced in a long time, I am in need of Hope. Hope for Light in a time of darkness. Hope for Love in a time of hatred and bigotry. Hope for Laughter in a time of sadness and bewilderment. Hope for Peace in a time of threat. … I must also live in the moment given me already, claiming the promise of Hope for Light and Love, Laughter and Peace.

Please my friends, let’s put our energy not into a dystopia but into heaven as a place on earth. Let’s focus on light, love, laughter, and peace here and now.

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