Not everything can be saved

For an optimist the idea that not everything will turn out fine is a challenging one. I am constantly looking for new ways round situations, trying to develop, include, grow, or save. I can’t help getting involved!

Recently I watched the David Attenborough documentary ‘Extinction – The facts’ it was not easy viewing, but is also a ‘must see’. It highlights the current global situation in which hundreds of thousands of species live on the knife edge of extinction. The scale of destruction and the enormous change of attitude and action needed at local, national and international levels is staggering, and clearly, not everything can be saved. However, there was something striking in the tone of this program – so much IS lost – so much WILL BE lost – but there is still HOPE. All is not lost.

Hope differs from optimism in this way. Optimism can be squashed by the harsh reality – what is there to be optimistic about? Hope, on the other hand, reminds us that there is time and that time is NOW, it reminds us that even the smallest person, the smallest and weakest community group, can make a difference. We need to see things differently.

Not everything can be saved. But much can.